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New Class of Pulsars Discovered
xyz writes "NASA's Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope has discovered a new class of pulsars which emit purely in gamma rays. A pulsar is a rapidly spinning neutron star, and of the nearly 1,800 cataloged so far, only a small fraction emit at frequencies higher than radio waves. The gamma-ray-only pulsar, which lies within a supernova remnant known as CTA 1, is silent across parts of the electromagnetic spectrum where pulsars are normally found, indicating a new class of pulsars. It is located 'about 4,600 light-years away in the constellation Cepheus. Its lighthouse-like beam sweeps Earth's way every 316.86 milliseconds. The pulsar, which formed in a supernova explosion about 10,000 years ago, emits 1,000 times the energy of our sun.'"
Odd thing is that the signal seems to be carrying a message. We have decoded it, and it seems to read: F-I-R-S-T---P-O-S-T-.
There was a recent Slashdot discussion on music from pulsars which didn't get quite the attention I wish it did. Along those lines, I'd again encourage all nerds here to check out Gerard Grisey's work Le Noire d'Etoile for six percussionists. This work is based in part on the periodicity of a certain pulsar, and at one moment the performers pause while the sound of another pulsar is acquired with a radio telescope and relayed over speakers in the hall. This would definitely appeal to the many nerds here with an astronomy bent, but it sadly remains little-known outside of IRCAM circles.
V-O-T-E-O-B-A-M-A
This proves they're from Chicagoland...
CTA....
3 busses will come within 316.86 milliseconds of each other,
then you'll wait 10,000 years for the next one.
Since "emitting" usually has an implied "per second" in it, we should be talking about the power it emits, not the energy.
This sucker is "only" 3,000 light years away? Isn't earth in danger of an extinction event when a gamma ray burst occurs from something about 6,000 light years away?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gamma_ray_burst
Should we hide in our basements, crack our neighbour's heads open and feast on the goo inside?
Quantum mechanics you insensitive prick!
It's not mentioned in the article, and I assume it's so obvious that it was ruled out before announcement, but is there anything to suggest that the pulsar is pulsing across all frequencies up to Gamma, and that intervening matter is simply blocking all but the high-energy Gamma portion of the pulse? Or am I just mixing up black-body emission and emission by electron's jumping a band-gap.
No natural object is spinning that fast. We need to re-examine other concepts, such as pulsars as interstellar beacons.
Somehow we have to evolve to survive intense space problems. I suggest we all go selectively breed and send our offspring to face trials of horrors. It's for the good of humanity.
HULK SMASH!!!
No folly is more costly than the folly of intolerant idealism. - Winston Churchill
Is there more to this than just a new object? Does it imply that certain models on how pulsars form need to be refined? Gamma rays are also incredibly high energy, what does it imply as for the structure of the pulsar that it doesn't emit lower frequencies?
What I'm getting at is pretty much that the article seem to just pass this off as a "ok, we have a new kind of pulsar here" without any follow up questions raised. IS there any questions to raise? Does this all fit neatly into what we know about pulsars, and is it easily explained why this one doesn't emit in lower frequencies, and only in a very high energy one?
I'm also surprised there are so much "junk" like the "yourmumisapulsar" tag and Obama posts, etc. Come on now, this is Slashdot, if I want the other stuff on science stories, I can read Digg. :-(
Beware: In C++, your friends can see your privates!
... we'll discover yet another class of pulsars, known as category WEB20, which emit purely Beta rays. And they reflect stuff!
Always proofread carefully to see if you any words out.
Assuming a Neutron star is actually solely made up of Neutrons ... how does it emit electromagnetic radiation when there's no charged particles? Is it just the minute amount of charged particles that reside that emit the radiation, or is it perhaps charged particles around the star, orbiting violently that emit?
It is a mass relay.
The pulsar, which formed in a supernova explosion about 10,000 years ago, emits 1,000 times the energy of our sun.
1. ??
2. Capture energy with solar panels
3. Profit
Slashdot "libertarians": Small government for me, big government for those I disagree with. -1, I disagree with you
Talk about Global Warming!
"It's the height of ridiculousness to say for those 9 lines you get hundreds of millions."
They thought is was a signal from another civilization, and they called pulsars LGM's (for Little Green men).
That is a true story!
I am very small, utmostly microscopic.
To be that hot, that it only shines in gamma, what could it be made of?
Obviously it is some form of degenrate matter, but can a quark-star get that hot?
Does this level of heat, require a size so small that a quark-star is not suffiecient?
Just wondering, does anyone have a calc as to how hot something realatively-big like
a nuetron star should be vs. how hot something much smaller like a quark-star should
be? Can we measure the size of the beam source by some means?
So . . . has any pulsar ever been gobbled up by a microscopic black hole, or turned into strange matter (stranglets), or caused a quantum vacuum explosion? No?
GO CERN!