Interesting events are taking place in every corner of this ever-expanding universe in which we live. Stars are formed, stars die, bodies merge, and sometimes new bodies are formed. Yes, it occurs because while some objects disappear, another system actually emerges. Pulsar is one of these systems. Pulsar doesn’t come out of nowhere, of course, A massive star must die first.

What makes the pulsar, a kind of neutron star, so interesting is that it sends us messages. During high rotational speeds, they spread radio waves, sound and even light around them. More interestingly, since they do this scattering at certain periods during their rotation, they are likened to a heartbeat, just like a human heart. Bride What does pulsar mean, one of the interesting objects in space, and how is it formed? Let’s take a closer look and see the story of the discovery.

Let’s start with the basics, what is a pulsar?

Pulsar, called pulsar in Turkish, is derived from the Latin word pulsate, which means the beating of the heart in English. Pulsars, a type of neutron star, got this name because They are the core of the system they are in and they emit radio waves, infrared rays, ultraviolet rays and light at certain times, just like a human heart.

So how do pulsars form?

A neutron star, or pulsar, is formed when a star collapses as a result of the breakup of a supernova explosion. This one The mass is dense, the diameter is small and the magnetic field is high. They are like sources that emit periodic radiation. Because of this similarity, they are likened to the lighthouse effect. Not every pulsar is the type of neutron star that can be seen from Earth.

Okay, but what exactly does pulsar mean, are pulsar and neutron star the same thing?

Not every neutron star is a pulsar, but every pulsar is a neutron star. Pulsars are a subset of neutron stars. There are countless stars in the universe. Pulsars do not form as a result of disintegration with the supernova explosion experienced in each star. Because pulsars are dense mass systems.

For example, the sun, which gives life to our Earth, is also a star, and one day it will explode and collapse, but pulsars will not form as a result. Because the sun is not that big. For a pulsar to form as a result of the explosion, a star must be at least 8 times larger than our sun. If stars like the sun collapse, they will most likely turn into white dwarfs. While 8 times the size of the sun forms a pulsar, a black hole can form as a result of the collapse of the 25 times larger one with a supernova explosion. In other words, the greater the mass of the collapsing star, the stronger the result.

The rotational speed of some pulsars is amazing:

If we look at the classical space information we’ve learned so far, we can see that it’s a space object It might be a little surprising that it beats like a heartbeat. because our heart beats a maximum of 100 times per minute under normal circumstances. As far as we know, stars don’t spin that fast, right? And how it comes back.

One of the discovered pulsars does not make a thousand revolutions per minute, but a thousand revolutions per second. In other words, it revolves around itself a thousand times in a second. An object, one of the first discovered pulsars, located in the center of the constellation Vos, emitted radio waves every 1.3 seconds.

The rotational speed of pulsars, of course, varies depending on the speed they have. For example The rotational speed of an average pulsar with a diameter of 20 km It can be 62,800 seconds per second, 3,768,000 kilometers per minute, and 226,000,000 kilometers per hour. We can understand density by weight. For example, take a teaspoon of substance from a pulsar. The weight of such a substance is more than 100 million tons on Earth. Yes, million.

There are different types of pulsars:

Scientists divide the pulsar into three basic groups; orbital pulsars, X-ray pulsars and magnetars. orbital pulsars as it revolves around itself, over time it loses its energy and dies. The radiation from magnetars comes from their very strong magnetic fields and they die when the magnetic field decreases.

X-ray pulsars are interesting because they occur in binary systems. The result of a pairing of a pulsar with another pulsar, star, or planet. There is a flow of matter in this system. Thanks to the flow of matter, the period of rotation of the pulsar increases and can last for millions of years.

The scientists who discovered the pulsar thought it was an alien message:

Jocelyn Bell Burnell and Antony Hewish, Cambridge University academics, to study the cores of galaxies, which they call quasars. In 1967, they conducted a series of studies. As part of this study, a gigantic radio telescope was set up and the data received were carefully analyzed.

In July of the same year, the team regularly picked up a signal that repeated itself every few seconds. LGM-1, Little Green Man, in Turkish little green man These so-called signals were thought to be the alien message we know. Because it came in 16 milliseconds, just like giving a message, and a signal like that can’t come from a planet.

The team shared these signals with other scientists at the university. There were even some who were afraid to destroy this data. Of course, when 4 more radio signals were discovered later, the situation was understood, and in 1968 these objects were called pulsars. In the same year, several researchers found another pulsar with a period of 33 milliseconds. Thanks to this discovered period, it was proved that pulsars are neutron stars.

Gravity proven by a pulsar:

Joseph Taylor and Russell Hulse found a pulsar in binary star systems in 1974. This pulsar orbited another pulsar and this tour lasted 8 hours. According to Albert Einstein’s general theory of relativity, gravitational waves would propagate as orbital energy dissipated.

Researchers have studied these pulsars for years. Over the years, it was noted that these two objects moved one meter closer to each other every year. During each radiation, the pulsar lost a certain amount of energy. So it was true, energy spread in gravitational waves. Joseph Taylor and Russell Hulse received the 1993 Nobel Prize in Physics for their work.

Neutron star beats like a human heart in space What does pulsar mean and how is it formed? We answered the curious questions and talked about the interesting details you need to know about the topic. Who knows what other mysteries await us in the desolate places of the universe. You can share your thoughts on the topic in the comments.