Another clue into the true nature of fast radio bursts

Fast radio bursts (FRBs) are strange events. They can last only milliseconds, but during that time can outshine a galaxy. Some FRBs are repeaters, meaning that they can occur more than once from the same location, while others ...

Russian astronomers discover dozens of new pulsars

A team of Russian astronomers from the Pushchino Radio Astronomy Observatory (PRAO) and elsewhere, reports the detection of 39 new pulsars as part of the Pushchino Multibeams Pulsar Search (PUMPS) project. The finding was ...

First pulsar detected in globular cluster GLIMPSE-C01

Using the Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array (VLA), astronomers have discovered a millisecond pulsar in the globular cluster GLIMPSE-C01 as part of the VLA Low-band Ionosphere and Transient Experiment (VLITE). This is the first ...

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Pulsar

Pulsars are highly magnetized, rotating neutron stars that emit a beam of electromagnetic radiation. The observed periods of their pulses range from 1.4 milliseconds to 8.5 seconds. The radiation can only be observed when the beam of emission is pointing towards the Earth. This is called the lighthouse effect and gives rise to the pulsed nature that gives pulsars their name. Because neutron stars are very dense objects, the rotation period and thus the interval between observed pulses are very regular. For some pulsars, the regularity of pulsation is as precise as an atomic clock. Pulsars are known to have planets orbiting them, as in the case of PSR B1257+12. Werner Becker of the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics said in 2006, "The theory of how pulsars emit their radiation is still in its infancy, even after nearly forty years of work."

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