pulsars – Astronomy Now

Seeing beyond the horizon of a space-warping pulsar

15 December 2019 Astronomy Now

The NICER telescope array aboard the International Space Station has made the most accurate measurements yet of a pulsar’s mass and size.

NICER spots thermonuclear flash from pulsar detonation

8 November 2019 Astronomy Now

The NICER X-ray telescope array aboard the International Space Station has witnessed a brilliant Type 1 X-ray burst from a pulsar 11,000 light years away.

Long-term study maps relativistic effects in binary pulsar

9 September 2019 Astronomy Now

A 14-year study of a binary pulsar matches predictions from relativity theory regarding how the spin axis of each pulsar changes direction, or precesses, over time.

Slow-motion neutron star challenges theoretical predictions

24 October 2018 Astronomy Now

Astronomers using the LOFAR radio telescope have discovered the slowest-spinning pulsar yet detected, a highly magnetized stellar remnant that takes more than 23 seconds to complete one revolution.

Up close and personal with ‘Pulsar in a Box’ simulation

14 October 2018 Astronomy Now

Computer simulations are giving astronomers a detailed view showing how the electric and magnetic fields surrounding fast-spinning pulsars spew out electrons and positrons, accelerating them to near light speed in a complex interplay that dominates the nearby environment.

Jocelyn Bell Burnell earns £2.3 million prize for pulsar discovery

6 September 2018 Astronomy Now

Jocelyn Bell Burnell has been awarded a £2.3 million Breakthrough Prize for her discovery of periodic radio pulses that signaled the discovery of pulsars. She plans to donate the money to help women and minority astronomy students.

‘Extreme’ telescopes find the second-fastest-spinning pulsar

6 September 2017 Astronomy Now

By following up on mysterious high-energy sources mapped out by NASA’s Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope, the Netherlands-based Low Frequency Array (LOFAR) radio telescope has identified a pulsar spinning at more than 42,000 revolutions per minute, making it the second-fastest known.

Station-bound instrument to open new chapter in the story of cosmic rays

9 August 2017 Stephen Clark

Physicists are gearing up to send a re-engineered science instrument originally designed for lofty balloon flights high in Earth’s atmosphere to the International Space Station next week to broaden their knowledge of cosmic rays, subatomic particles traveling on intergalactic routes that could hold the key to unlocking mysteries about supernovas, black holes, pulsars and dark matter.

Experiment devoted to neutron star research installed on space station

19 June 2017 Stephen Clark

A NASA instrument built to help astronomers learn about the structure and behaviour of neutron stars, super-dense stellar skeletons left behind by massive explosions, has been mounted to an observation post outside the International Space Station after delivery aboard a SpaceX supply ship earlier this month.

Fermi satellite observes billionth gamma ray

16 May 2017 Astronomy Now

Imagine you had superhero vision and could see a whole new world of fascinating phenomena invisible to the human eye. NASA’s Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope gives astrophysicists analogous powers. It captures images of the universe in gamma rays, the most energetic form of light.