Most individuals with even the most rudimentary knowledge of science have probably heard of x-rays and gamma radiation. Very few however, will be able to tell you where these forms of radiation come from. The answer: Pulsars. Pulsars, or neutron stars, are physics sandboxes that provide extreme conditions for humans to experiment with which are not readily available on Earth. Due to this usefulness, the discovery and research of these phenomena should be of the utmost importance. These neutron stars, barely 12 miles across, are troves of undiscovered scientific mysteries.
To begin our journey into the mysteries of pulsars, it is wise to start at their original point of discovery. Pulsars were first predicted to exist by Zwicky and Baade in 1932, two astronomers, after they suggested that the massive amounts of pressure created in the center of a supernova explosion would be …show more content…
They could be either an oscillating object, an orbiting object or a rotating object. However, once a pulsar was discovered inside the Crab Nebula supernova remnant this was discovered to be untrue. The reason the pulsar was discovered was due to the fact that the nebula was still very bright despite its age. A star in the middle was viewed as the cause, however the star would not fit into any of the already established categories (Pulsar Properties, 2018). Two astronomers took an interest in this occurrence and decided to monitor the Crab Nebula for pulsed radio emissions. They found high intensity pulses originating from the central strange star, and were therefore able to identify it as a pulsar. They later discovered that the giant pulses they observed, occurred every two minutes or so, and that the true pulse period was as short as 33 milliseconds. This discovery discarded white dwarfs from the possibility of being pulsars, as radial oscillations were only possible for periods longer than 1 second (Properties of Pulsars,
To begin our journey into the mysteries of pulsars, it is wise to start at their original point of discovery. Pulsars were first predicted to exist by Zwicky and Baade in 1932, two astronomers, after they suggested that the massive amounts of pressure created in the center of a supernova explosion would be …show more content…
They could be either an oscillating object, an orbiting object or a rotating object. However, once a pulsar was discovered inside the Crab Nebula supernova remnant this was discovered to be untrue. The reason the pulsar was discovered was due to the fact that the nebula was still very bright despite its age. A star in the middle was viewed as the cause, however the star would not fit into any of the already established categories (Pulsar Properties, 2018). Two astronomers took an interest in this occurrence and decided to monitor the Crab Nebula for pulsed radio emissions. They found high intensity pulses originating from the central strange star, and were therefore able to identify it as a pulsar. They later discovered that the giant pulses they observed, occurred every two minutes or so, and that the true pulse period was as short as 33 milliseconds. This discovery discarded white dwarfs from the possibility of being pulsars, as radial oscillations were only possible for periods longer than 1 second (Properties of Pulsars,