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Astronomers have discovered a pulsar a dense and rapidly spinning neutron star sending radio waves into the cosmos using a low-frequency radio telescope in outback Australia. The new pulsar is located more than 3,000 light-years from Earth and spins about once every second. Pulsars are used by astronomers for applications including testing the laws of physics under extreme conditions.
The study of pulsars is one of the headline areas of science for the multi-billion-dollar Square Kilometre Array.
New Pulsar Detected in Southern Hemisphere
A new pulsar has been discovered with images from the Murchison Widefield Array (MWA) telescope, a low-frequency radio telescope located in rural Western Australia. The puslar is the first to be detected with the MWA, but according to scientists at Curtin University, there are likely to be more similar discoveries in the near future. That’s because the MWA is the lead-up to an even more advanced telescope in the words called the Square Kilometre Array (SKA). Pulsars are born as a result of supernovae when a massive star explodes and dies, it can leave behind a collapsed core known as a neutron star, explains Nick Swainston, a PhD student at the Curtin University campus of the International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research (ICRAR), who detected the pulsar during his work at the center. They re about one and a half times the mass of the Sun, but all squeezed within only 20 kilometres, and they have ultra-strong magnetic fields.
Outback radio telescope discovers dense, spinning, dead star miragenews.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from miragenews.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.