South Africa’s MeerKAT Radio Telescope Discovers Millisecond Pulsars Inside Globular Clusters
Using South Africa’s MeerKAT Radio Telescope, astronomers from the Italian National Institute of Astrophysics (INAF) in Rome and the Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy (MPIfR) in Bonn, Germany, have discovered new millisecond pulsars hidden deep inside globular clusters. Millisecond pulsars are extremely compact stars mainly made up of neutrons and are amongst the most extreme objects in the Universe. They pack hundreds of thousands of times the mass of the Earth in a sphere with a diameter of about 24 km. They spin at very high rates and emit a beam of radio waves that hit an observer at every rotation, like a lighthouse. Millisecond pulsars spin at truly breathtaking speeds -- rates of up to 700 times per second, which means that these stars are spinning at a staggering 42,000 revolutions per minute. To put this in context, a Ferrari Formula 1 race car engine has a maximum internal engine rotational speed of 15,000 rpm.
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Funding Member
If Gamma Ray Bursts tickle your fancy. then you'll love these postings on GRBs from a few years ago:
https://astromart.com/news/show/nasa-space-telescopes-capture-the-biggest-baddest-gamma-ray-blast-ever-seen
https://astromart.com/news/show/wolf-rayet-104-has-us-locked-in-its-gunsights-are-we-in-danger-of-an-extinction-level-grb
Guy
Thanks for the kind words.
I'm glad you enjoyed the posting.
Thanks,
Guy