Pulsar – Astronomy Now

Nearby pulsar a likely source of high-energy antimatter cosmic rays

31 December 2019 Astronomy Now

A decade of data from NASA’s Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope shows a nearby pulsar is the likely source of an excess of antimatter cosmic rays.

Mapping the cosmic web with fast radio bursts

21 November 2016 Astronomy Now

Fast radio bursts, or FRBs, are mysterious flashes of radio waves originating outside our Milky Way galaxy. A team of scientists, jointly led by Caltech postdoctoral scholar Vikram Ravi and Curtin University research fellow Ryan Shannon, has now observed the most luminous FRB to date, called FRB 150807.

Discovering the X-ray treasures in Chandra’s archives

16 October 2016 Astronomy Now

Each year, NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory helps celebrate American Archive Month by releasing a collection of images using X-ray data. Each of these six new images — representing just a small fraction of the treasures that reside in Chandra’s unique archive — also includes data from telescopes covering other parts of the electromagnetic spectrum, such as visible and infrared light.

Millisecond pulsars in globular cluster 47 Tucanae

3 October 2016 Astronomy Now

Pulsars are rapidly spinning neutron stars that emit electromagnetic radiation in a sweeping, lighthouse-like beam. They are dramatic, powerful probes of supernovae, their progenitor stars. Astronomers have measured the orbital parameters of four millisecond pulsars in the globular cluster 47 Tucanae and modelled their possible formation and evolution paths.

Young magnetar likely slowest pulsar ever detected

9 September 2016 Astronomy Now

Using X-ray observatories, astronomers have found evidence for what is likely one of the most extreme pulsars, or rotating neutron stars, ever detected. The source exhibits properties of a highly magnetised neutron star, or magnetar, yet its deduced spin period of 6⅔ hours is thousands of times longer than any pulsar ever observed.

Supernova ejected from the pages of history

18 August 2016 Astronomy Now

A new look at the debris from an exploded star in our galaxy has astronomers re-examining when the supernova actually happened. Recent observations of the supernova remnant called G11.2-0.3 with NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory have stripped away its connection to an event recorded by the Chinese in 386 CE.

Hubble captures the beating heart of the Crab Nebula

7 July 2016 Astronomy Now

This new NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image reveals the beating heart of one of the most visually appealing, and most studied, supernova remnants known — the Crab Nebula in the constellation Taurus. At the centre of this nebula the spinning core of a deceased star breathes life into the gas that surrounds it.

Gravitational wave search provides insights into galaxy mergers

6 April 2016 Astronomy Now

New results from NANOGrav — the North American Nanohertz Observatory for Gravitational Waves — establish astrophysically significant limits in the search for low-frequency gravitational waves. This result provides insight into how often galaxies merge and how those merging galaxies evolve over time.

Andromeda Galaxy’s first spinning neutron star found

2 April 2016 Astronomy Now

Decades of searching in the Andromeda Galaxy has finally paid off, with the discovery of an elusive breed of stellar corpse — a neutron star, by ESA’s XMM-Newton space telescope. Neutron stars are the small and extraordinarily dense remains of a once-massive star that exploded as a powerful supernova at the end of its natural life.

Could globular clusters be home to intelligent life?

6 January 2016 Keith Cooper

Globular clusters may be the perfect location to find extraterrestrial civilisations, according to new research announced at the 227th American Astronomical Society meeting in Florida.