Pulsars the Cosmic Lighthouses

Super fact 108 : A Pulsar is a rapidly rotating neutron star that emits beams of electromagnetic radiation from its magnetic poles. The radioactive beam from a pulsar that is located where the sun is located would heat earth’s surface to tens of thousands of degrees. The pulsar may rotate hundreds of times per second, and we only detect the beam when it crosses our line of sight. A neutron star, or a pulsar, is vastly denser than the Sun, typically hundreds of trillions of times denser.

As mentioned, a pulsar is a rapidly rotating neutron star that emits beams of radiation from its magnetic poles. A neutron star is an ultra-dense remnant left behind when a massive supergiant star runs out of fuel and collapses. You can read more about neutron stars in my post here and you can read about neutron stars that act like super magnets called magnetars here. This web page feature a calculation of what the intensity of a pulsar beam would be if it hit Earth and the pulsar is located where the sun is.

I consider this a super fact because pulsars are a very extreme type of star, which existence I believe comes as a surprise to many people.

Below is a one and a half minute NASA video explaining what a pulsar is. It is taken from this website.

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Different Types of Neutron Stars and Different types of Pulsars

Neutron stars are extreme stars. They are small super dense stars with extreme gravitational fields. They are in a sense like a gigantic atomic nucleus. Perhaps it is not surprising that they are extreme in other ways as well. There are pulsars, neutron stars which emit twin beams of radiation from their magnetic poles. Those poles may not be precisely aligned with the neutron star’s rotation axis, so as the neutron star spins, the beams sweep across the sky, like beams from a lighthouse. To observers on Earth, this can make it look as though the pulsar’s light is pulsing on and off.

There are different types of pulsars. Some spin extremely fast. They rotate hundreds of times per second, even 700 times per second. They are called Millisecond Pulsars. There are pulsars that emit beams of radio waves and pulsars that emit only gamma rays. A black widow pulsar a star system consisting of a rapidly spinning pulsar and a companion star that is being consumed by the pulsar like a black widow spider eats its mate. This link feature animation videos from NASA showing a star being consumed by a black widow pulsar.

Finally, there are magnetars, neutron stars with extremely powerful magnetic fields trillions and quadrillion times stronger than Earth’s magnetic field at the surface. You can read about them here.

Other extreme stellar objects

• We are Star Dust
• The Strange Worlds of Exoplanets
• The Bizarre Reality of Black Holes
• The Enormous Kuiper belt
• Quasar TON 618
• Magnetars Super Magnets in the Sky
• Neutron Stars Trillions of Times Denser than the Sun

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To see the other Super Facts click here