#pulsar

[lonestarflight]

The real sound of Vela Pulsar captured by NASA.

[drunkenmantis]

Pulsar

[mindblowingscience]

Star Caught Orbiting Inside Another Star in Bizarre First

Binary star systems are pairs of stars held together by gravity, orbiting a common center of mass.

Binary star systems are pairs of stars held together by gravity, orbiting a common center of mass. More than half of all stars in our galaxy are part of a binary or multiple-star system making them surprisingly common. The stars in a binary can vary widely in mass, size, and brightness, and their interactions often shape their evolution in dramatic ways. In some cases, the gravity from one star can drag material from its companion, leading to explosive events like novae or even supernovae.

Continue Reading.

[nasa]

Navigating Deep Space by Starlight

On August 6, 1967, astrophysicist Jocelyn Bell Burnell noticed a blip in her radio telescope data. And then another. Eventually, Bell Burnell figured out that these blips, or pulses, were not from people or machines.

The blips were constant. There was something in space that was pulsing in a regular pattern, and Bell Burnell figured out that it was a pulsar: a rapidly spinning neutron star emitting beams of light. Neutron stars are superdense objects created when a massive star dies. Not only are they dense, but neutron stars can also spin really fast! Every star we observe spins, and due to a property called angular momentum, as a collapsing star gets smaller and denser, it spins faster. It’s like how ice skaters spin faster as they bring their arms closer to their bodies and make the space that they take up smaller.

The pulses of light coming from these whirling stars are like the beacons spinning at the tops of lighthouses that help sailors safely approach the shore. As the pulsar spins, beams of radio waves (and other types of light) are swept out into the universe with each turn. The light appears and disappears from our view each time the star rotates.

After decades of studying pulsars, astronomers wondered—could they serve as cosmic beacons to help future space explorers navigate the universe? To see if it could work, scientists needed to do some testing!

First, it was important to gather more data. NASA’s NICER, or Neutron star Interior Composition Explorer, is a telescope that was installed aboard the International Space Station in 2017. Its goal is to find out things about neutron stars like their sizes and densities, using an array of 56 special X-ray concentrators and sensitive detectors to capture and measure pulsars’ light.

But how can we use these X-ray pulses as navigational tools? Enter SEXTANT, or Station Explorer for X-ray Timing and Navigation Technology. If NICER was your phone, SEXTANT would be like an app on it.  

During the first few years of NICER’s observations, SEXTANT created an on-board navigation system using NICER’s pulsar data. It worked by measuring the consistent timing between each pulsar’s pulses to map a set of cosmic beacons.

When calculating position or location, extremely accurate timekeeping is essential. We usually rely on atomic clocks, which use the predictable fluctuations of atoms to tick away the seconds. These atomic clocks can be located on the ground or in space, like the ones on GPS satellites. However, our GPS system only works on or close to Earth, and onboard atomic clocks can be expensive and heavy. Using pulsar observations instead could give us free and reliable “clocks” for navigation. During its experiment, SEXTANT was able to successfully determine the space station’s orbital position!

We can calculate distances using the time taken for a signal to travel between two objects to determine a spacecraft’s approximate location relative to those objects. However, we would need to observe more pulsars to pinpoint a more exact location of a spacecraft. As SEXTANT gathered signals from multiple pulsars, it could more accurately derive its position in space.

So, imagine you are an astronaut on a lengthy journey to the outer solar system. You could use the technology developed by SEXTANT to help plot your course. Since pulsars are reliable and consistent in their spins, you wouldn’t need Wi-Fi or cell service to figure out where you were in relation to your destination. The pulsar-based navigation data could even help you figure out your ETA!

None of these missions or experiments would be possible without Jocelyn Bell Burnell’s keen eye for an odd spot in her radio data decades ago, which set the stage for the idea to use spinning neutron stars as a celestial GPS. Her contribution to the field of astrophysics laid the groundwork for research benefitting the people of the future, who yearn to sail amongst the stars.  

Keep up with the latest NICER news by following NASA Universe on X and Facebook and check out the mission’s website. For more on space navigation, follow @NASASCaN on X or visit NASA’s Space Communications and Navigation website.  

Make sure to follow us on Tumblr for your regular dose of space!

[comicpolls]

Favourite Black Character: Round Four Match Two of Eight

Roberto Da Costa (Sunspot)

Monica Rambeau (Photon/Captain Marvel/Pulsar/Spectrum)

Voting ended onFeb 4

[welele]

La verdad que yo la primera vez que vi uno de esos también me rayé.

[womeninfictionandirl]

Monica Rambeau by Lucas Werneck

[icemanxe10]

Jan 14th, 2024

At the throat of the entrance to Sportsland Yamanashi, deep in the countryside not far from Mount Fuji, sit a pair of N14 Sunny (Pulsars down here in Australia) GTi-R hatches, slowly decaying in the elements as nature reclaims them.

I've no idea who drove them or the accolades they may have earned, but it's somewhat bitter-sweet seeing these icons in such rough shape. I presume they were a part of a spec series, similar to those captured in the track's small gallery of history.

You feel the urge to restore them - to save them from their fate and hear those SR20 engines sing again. Yet somehow, their presence is comforting - an enduring symbol of the past. A reminder of how transient everything can be, yet no less memorable. I think I might prefer them, just the way they are.

Source: @icemanxe10