Pulsar

According to the Year 9 Science Book (K.Whalley, P. Roberson, G. Rickard and I. Brown), a pulsar is "a rapidly rotating neutron star with a strong magnetic field...emits radio waves". However, Wikipedia says that a Pulsar emits electromagnetic radiation. While it may seem else, they both are the right answer. In theory, Pulsars emit a variety of things, including electromagnetic radiation, radio waves, light and X-Ray waves. There are also gamma rays, but they account for only 12 of the 1800 cases of known Pulsars.

A pulsar is the second-last stage in the life of star ten times the mass of the sun. A pulsar is basically a neutron star. The difference is that it rapidly rotates due to its high density and like the lighthouse effect, it beems radio waves. This can only be detected as it passes past Earth.

The interval in each pulsar's radio wave beams are usually 1.4 milliseconds to 8.5 seconds. Some are so precise to a second, that they can be compared to an atomic clock. Because of the pulsar's gravity, there are known cases of planets rotating around them. However, there is not much information about them, for as once Werner Becker said, "The theory of how pulsars emit their radiation is still in its infancy, even after nearly forty years of work".

Pulsars were discovered first in July 1967 by Anthony Hewish and Jocelyn Bell Burnel. They named it LGM-1 (Little Green Men- 1), for they thought that it was beams from extraterrestrial life. It was named several things including CP 1919, PSR 1919+21, PSR B1919+21 and PSR J1921+2153. It's official name, however, is CP 1919.

After a year, in 1968, Thomas Gold and Franco Pacini discovered that it was a pulsar and were further reassured when another 33 millisecond pulse came from the Crab Nebula.

There are three types of Pulsars:
 * **Rotation Powered Pulsars-** The radiation is powered by the loss of rotational energy.
 * **Accretion Powered Pulsars-** Where the energy source is the gravitational potential energy of accreted matter, and
 * **Magnetars-** The radiation is powered by the decay of a very strong magnetic field.

Pulsars can be detected by special types of telescopes called Radio Telescopes.

Examples of Pulsars include:

CP 1919 was the first Pulsar discovered in outer space. It was first named LGM-1 after a joke of Little Green Men but now has many other names. It has a a interval period of 1.3373 seconds and a pulsar width of 0.04 seconds. It is located in the constellation of Velpecula.



PSR J1748-2446ad is the name of this pulsar. It is the highest rotating pulsar ever to be recorded. It was discovered by Jason W T Hessels and was confirmed on January 8, 2005.



This pulsar is PSR 1913+16, the first pulsar to be discovered with a binary star system. It was discovered by Russell Alan Hulse and Joseph Hooton Taylor, Jr., of Princeton University. They received the Nobel Prize for their discovery. It is 21000 light years away from Earth and rotates roughly every 59 milliseconds.

The though of living on a pulsar comes to an end when you think about the radiation. It would simply be too much to take for a normal human being. Also, the rapid rotation, strong gravity and the fact that there is no atmosphere or no ozone layer also contribute. When you add these factors up, the chance is next to impossible that life could be sustainable on a Pulsar. Also, the distance between Earth and the nearest pulsar is too great. It would take us hundreds of years just to get to the nearest pulsar.