NASA continues to explore mysterious pulsars

NASA continues to explore mysterious pulsars

In this artistic interpretation two pulsar jets are visible.

50 years ago, J. Bell managed to accidentally discover a new kind of space object. He used a large-scale radio telescope, which was supposed to catch the random flickering of the brightness of quasars. Suddenly strange signals came in every 1,333,730 seconds. Bell saw something unusual.

The pulses were regular and resembled the ticking of a clock. The scientist thought that he had encountered some unnatural phenomenon. But with the discovery of the second, third, and fourth, his opinion began to change.

Despite the fact that no one had seen them before, these objects were already mentioned in scientific papers. Today we know about the existence of 2000 pulsars. These neutron stars begin their journey in the form of stars, whose mass is 7–20 times greater than solar. New technologies have discovered ways to study and search for them with the help of various wavelengths of light, which are distinguished by their special energy. The first such mission from NASA is NICER. It was she who managed to observe the first pulsar PSR B1919 + 21.

In June, NICER went to the ISS and set to work. X-ray review is part of the EM spectrum. Astrophysicists have always been interested to find out what is inside the pulsar. The material is a collection of protons, electrons and quarks. But with such pressure, their behavior and contact is difficult to determine.

In order to explain the composition and mechanism of behavior of quasar elements, many models were created. But for more accurate presentation you need more data. The mission will continue to search for objects. This also helps SEXTANT, which determines the exact position of the device in orbit.

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