Questions tagged [pulsar]

Questions regarding neutron stars which emit regular pulses of electromagnetic radiation.

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How do I make a custom pulsar map?

I'm looking to make a custom pulsar map like the one on the Voyager Records, but for an arbitrary location within the Milky Way Galaxy. I'm not even sure where to begin.
Cygnus X-1's user avatar
1 vote
3 answers
414 views

How much mass does our sun need for exploding like supernova?

Beside that, is that possible our sun became pulsar? And if not (and i know likely) but how much more mass does it need to become one ?
Rahul Singh's user avatar
1 vote
1 answer
600 views

Why are the spherical and cartesian galactic coordinates in the ATNF Pulsar Catalogue different?

I am trying to relate Galactic Latitude (b) and Longitude (l) (spherical coordinates) to galactic cartesian x,y,z coordinates in the ATNF pulsar catalog. This query shows some sample data with ...
7yl4r's user avatar
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6 votes
2 answers
317 views

Why do pulsars turn "off" from rotation?

I was looking at the Pulsar wikipedia article and I came across an interesting aspect that said pulsars turn off from rotation: When a pulsar's spin period slows down sufficiently, the radio pulsar ...
StellarExile's user avatar
4 votes
1 answer
593 views

Could pulsar navigation replace GPS

as a follow-up to my previous question I found out that the Voyager Golden record uses a star map of pulsars to precisely show where our solar system is... Is it possible/feasible to base a ...
Our Man in Bananas's user avatar
1 vote
1 answer
216 views

Could a pulsar in orbit around a black hole feed the black hole with its radiation?

Could the black hole consume the radiation? If so, could the pulsar radiation absorbed by the black hole make it grow steadily more massive over the course of billions or trillions of years?
Gliese's user avatar
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2 votes
1 answer
228 views

What does a pulsar look like if viewed from above?

Have we ever seen a pulsar directly from above or below it's spin axis? I am wondering if a pulsar seen from this angle would appear to be constantly spinning or if it would just appear like a normal ...
Jimmery's user avatar
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5 votes
2 answers
278 views

Rule of Exception in All Nearest Objects

I once heard of a strange phenomenon, but now cannot find anything about it on the Internet. I might be looking for the wrong keywords or misremember some relevant aspect. So maybe someone here can ...
Alfe's user avatar
  • 173
3 votes
1 answer
116 views

Could a closely orbiting pulsar be used to study a black hole?

If we were to locate a pulsar in a close elliptical orbit around a black hole, could this reveal significant information about the black hole (e.g. time dilation / structure)? Could this even tell us ...
Jonathan's user avatar
  • 4,355
3 votes
2 answers
480 views

How to find period of a pulsar from a given time sampled voltage data?

I've a data file with 2 columns, each containing time sampled voltage output (a sequence of real numbers) from a radio telescope, so there is a pair of telescope which are measuring the signal here. ...
apooravc's user avatar
17 votes
4 answers
738 views

Does the observed period of a pulsar change with the time of year?

Over in the Physics SE a question was posted asking about the difference in the time dilation of the Earth between perihelion and aphelion: Does Earth experience any significant, measurable time ...
John Rennie's user avatar
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Is there a significant population of neutron stars outside the galactic plane?

Pulsar kicks originating from supernovae can impart neutron stars with speeds of 100-500 km/s, often at or close to the escape velocity of the Milky Way. Even if a pulsar fails to escape the galaxy, ...
HDE 226868's user avatar
  • 36k
2 votes
1 answer
283 views

Are there radio white dwarfs?

We have discovered about 2500 radio pulsars. Part of them show pulsations in other bands like X-ray and gamma ray. The radiation mechanism remains unclear now. I wonder whether there are radio ...
questionhang's user avatar
  • 3,063
2 votes
0 answers
95 views

Can we determine where the north and south magnetic poles are on stars and black holes?

The question is related to this about Are there collected data about the direction of rotation of black holes and the direction of the magnetic field?. Perhaps it is observable for pulsars?
HolgerFiedler's user avatar
3 votes
1 answer
2k views

Could human life thrive on a planet in a pulsar star system?

Aleksander Wolszczan of Pennsylvania State University found three planets circling a pulsar called PSR B1257+12.Two of the planets were the size of Earth.The pulsar observed by Spitzer, named 4U 0142+...
user5434678's user avatar
21 votes
4 answers
14k views

How Would a Neutron Star Actually Appear?

Having seen many pictures produced by artists of neutron stars and planets that orbit some of them, I was wondering how a pulsar would appear to a human being, in visible light (assuming the intense ...
user avatar
6 votes
1 answer
305 views

How to tell a pulsar is rotation-powered or accretion-powered?

We need to calculate P/Pdot? A pulsar may switch between theses two states. For a rotation powered pulsar, it can pulse and, the pulsed Lx can be much larger than the luminosity given by its ...
questionhang's user avatar
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10 votes
2 answers
997 views

Why are the magnetic poles of a pulsar so far off the rotational axis, yet stable?

My understanding is that a pulsar is a neutron star whose magnetic poles don't coincide with the rotational poles and whose magnetic poles sweep through Earth (allowing us to hear radio noise). If we ...
Bohemian's user avatar
  • 271
1 vote
1 answer
266 views

Why do some neutron stars become pulsars? [duplicate]

I suspect this may be an open problem in astronomy, but I have to ask anyway. There doesn't seem to be any large-scale difference in the formation of pulsars from the formation of "normal" neutron ...
HDE 226868's user avatar
  • 36k
5 votes
1 answer
524 views

which pulsar has the longest spin period so far?

Vela X-1 has a 283s spin period, while this one may have a 2.7hr spin period. However neither of them is included in ATNF catalog. They are not included in $p-\dot{p}$ diagram either. The longest ...
questionhang's user avatar
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4 votes
2 answers
769 views

Pulsars: How do astronomers measure minute changes in period (~picoseconds per year)?

I've been to some talks that mention how stable the period of a millisecond pulsar is over long periods of time. Recently, it was mentioned that astronomers have calculated the change in period over ...
Sam's user avatar
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4 votes
4 answers
3k views

Hulse Taylor Binary Pulsar - How is "Cumulative Periastron Time shift" calculated?

Following on from a previous question about the interesting Hulse Taylor Binary Pulsar. BACKGROUD Weisberg & Taylor, 2004 present a graph showing the change in "Cumulative Periastron Time Shift" ...
steveOw's user avatar
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4 votes
1 answer
310 views

Hulse-Taylor binary pulsar - what is the rate of mass/energy loss from the source?

Following on from an earlier question about the very interesting Hulse-Taylor binary pulsar. The high-frequency (radio) beam from the spinning pulsar sweeps across Earth about 17 times per second. ...
steveOw's user avatar
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2 votes
1 answer
198 views

Birth and Evolution of Millisecond Pulsars

How are millisecond pulsars formed, and what is the evolutionary track of a millisecond pulsar?
Frank's user avatar
  • 153
5 votes
1 answer
279 views

How did the Hulse-Taylor Pulsar Provide Confirming Evidence of General Relativity?

What measurements and observations of the Hulse-Taylor Pulsar agreed precisely with the predictions of general relativity, and how did these measurements support the theory?
Frank's user avatar
  • 153
3 votes
2 answers
144 views

Pulsars with accreting disk in binary system

Following this line, I am wondering about the following question. Accreting pulsars in binary systems are usually thought to accrete from a prograde disk, so increasing their spin in the process. ...
Py-ser's user avatar
  • 1,937
5 votes
1 answer
780 views

Does Doppler shift affect apparent pulsar frequency?

We know that redshift and blueshift is the result of the frequency of light waves reflected or emitted by an object lengthening or shortening due to the relative velocity of the observer moving away ...
Kromey's user avatar
  • 165
1 vote
1 answer
144 views

traveling past the speed of light [closed]

According to the theory of relativity (If I understand correctly), nothing is supposed to be able to travel faster then the speed of light. I believe, to my limited knowledge and grasp of the concept, ...
Nkciy84's user avatar
  • 113
5 votes
1 answer
229 views

Brightest Radio Source In the Universe

I would have assumed that the brightest radio source in the Universe is a quasar of some kind (perhaps 3C 273) given that the average pulsar has luminosity of $~10^{40} \text{Watts}$ and this is the ...
soandos's user avatar
  • 213
11 votes
1 answer
302 views

Crab Nebula Time Period

I've learned that the time period for a rotating neutron star, i.e., a pulsar is very accurate and can be used as an interstellar clock. But according to Walter Lewin's 8.01 Lec 19 on classical ...
shortstheory's user avatar
12 votes
1 answer
475 views

What is the significance of the discovery of a pulsar flipping between radio and x-ray emissions?

This morning on the radio I heard about the discovery of a pulsar that, due to its proximity to a companion star, was flipping between a state where it emitted radio waves and one where it emitted x-...
Gavin Simpson's user avatar
15 votes
2 answers
7k views

What causes a neutron star to become a pulsar?

Leading on from this pulsar question, what criteria/processes make neutron stars become pulsars, do all neutron stars become pulsars?
SteB's user avatar
  • 597
28 votes
2 answers
2k views

What causes a star to become a pulsar?

What processes does a star undergo to become a pulsar? Does it take a very specific star with a certain set of qualities such as "Just the right mass, diameter, and composition," or is it a freak ...
David Freitag's user avatar

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