Millisecond Pulsars Discovered

A group of astronomers have discovered 8 milli second Pulsars. These pulsars are located within the dense clusters of stars called the “Globular Clusters”. The Pulsars were discovered using the MeerKAT telescope located in South Africa.

What are Milli second Pulsars?

• The Milli second pulsars are the most compact stars known to mankind. They pin up to 700 times per second. They are much rarer than the slower spinning pulsars. The Milli second pulsars are those pulsars whose rotational period is less than ten milli seconds.
• The Milli second pulsars are made of neutrons.
• They are the most extreme objects in the universe with a diameter of about 24 kilometres.
• Their mass is hundreds of thousands of times the mass of the earth.
• They emit beams of radio waves.
• This Pulsar discovery is the first using MeerKAT telescope.
• The Pulsar discovery comes from two international collaborations TRAPUM and MeerTIME.
• The discovery will help the Globular Cluster Pulsar Survey of TRAPUM.

How were the milli second pulsars discovered?

The astronomers directed the telescope towards nine globular clusters and they discovered new pulsars in six of them. Of these, six of them orbit around another star.

Pulsars

Pulsar is a neutron star. It is packed with the mass of at least 1.4 times the mass of the sun. They are formed from the explosive deaths of their parent star. Due to their strong magnetic fields the Pulsar emits radio waves at each pole.

MeerKAT Telescope

It is a Karoo Array telescope with sixty-four antennas. Also, it is a radio telescope. It is located in the Northern Cape of South Africa. It is soon to be expanded to MeerKAT+ by installing twenty more antennas.

Month: Current Affairs - May, 2021