In Pursuit of Pulsars

CREATED BY
RAJA SHEKAR

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 Audio recording of a pulsar
• You are listening to a radio recording of a
star of mass a thousand, million, million,
million, million (1027) tonnes spinning on its
axis 11 times a second...
• It is called a pulsar (pulsating radio star) or
neutron star

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Horsehead Nebula, Orion.

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Pleiades or Seven Sisters

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The Jewel Box

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‘Planetary’ Nebula

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Large Magellanic Cloud

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Supernova 1987a

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Crab Nebula

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Vela Supernova Remnant

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 Properties of Pulsars 1
• Mass 1027 tonnes
• Radius 10 km
• Average density comparable with density of
nucleus

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Properties of Pulsars 2
• A thimble-full of
pulsar material
would weigh the
same as the 6
billion people who
live on the Earth

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 Properties of Pulsars 3
• Gravitational force strong –
work done climbing 1cm high
‘mountain’ on neutron star =
work done climbing Everest
• Atmosphere compressed by
gravity – only 1 or 2 cm thick

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 Properties of Pulsars 4
• Gravity bends light – one can see
over the horizon on a neutron star
• Gravity red shifts light
• Gravity affects clocks – clocks
tick two times slower than here on
Earth

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 Properties of Pulsars 5
• The gradient of the gravitational force is
strong – tidal disruption of bodies
approaching neutron star

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 Properties of Pulsars 6
• Magnetic field is 108 Tesla
• Voltage drops of up to 109 Volt/cm

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 Properties of Pulsars 7
• All this rotates as a solid body
• Pulse period = rotation period
• Range observed P = 1.6 ms to P = 8 s
• For a pulsar with P=0.1 s, material co-
rotating has speed of c at radius = 4775 km
(less than radius of Earth)

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 Pulsars (pulsating radio stars) today

• Star spins like a lighthouse, sweeping radio beam

around the sky.
• We see a pulse each time beam sweeps across us.
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 Pulsars Properties 8
• They are weak emitters of radio waves
• Their accurate timekeeping (good to 1 part
in 1021) means they can be used as clocks to
test Einstein’s theory of Relativity.

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Pulsar test of GR

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Also called pulsars…

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 Pulsars – some amazing facts 1

• The pressure at the centre of a neutron

star is

100000000000000000000000000

times the atmospheric pressure here on

Earth
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 Pulsars – some amazing facts 2
• The fastest known pulsar is
PSR1937+21
with a period of
P= 1.55780644887275+/- 0.0000000000003
milliseconds

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 Pulsars – some amazing facts 2
• The fastest known pulsar is
PSR1937+21
with a period of
P= 1.55780644887275+/- 0.0000000000003
milliseconds
• Stop Press! Pulsar with period
P = 1.39595482 +/- 0.00000006 ms just
discovered.
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 Pulsars – some amazing facts 3

• The pulsars that are the best timekeepers

have a ’jitter’ of only
0.00000000000000000002
i.e. about 0.00006 millionths of a second
per century.

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 Pulsars – some amazing facts 4

• The first planets discovered beyond the

Solar System are three planets around
the pulsar PSR1257+12. There is also a
tiny fourth planet or asteroid in the
system.

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 Pulsars – some amazing facts 5

• The roundest known thing in the

universe is the orbit of the pulsar
PSRJ2317+1439 around another star. It
is round to 1 mm in 69000km.

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 Pulsars – some amazing facts 5

• The roundest known thing in the

universe is the orbit of the pulsar
PSRJ2317+1439 around another star. It
is round to 1 mm in 69000km.
• We hear that….another pulsar has been
found with orbit that is round to 0.04mm
in 100000km.

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 Pulsars – some amazing facts 6

If you drop a coin on to the

surface of a neutron star, you will
see it hit the surface with a speed
of 0.6c

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The End

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