Radio telescope records a rare 'glitch' in a pulsar's regular pulsing beat

Pulsars are rapidly rotating neutron stars and sometimes they abruptly increase their rotation rate. This sudden change of spin rate is called a "glitch" and I was part of a team that recorded one happening in the Vela Pulsar, with the results published today in Nature.

Approximately 5-6% of pulsars are known to glitch. The Vela pulsar is perhaps the most famous – a very southern object that spins about 11.2 times per second and was discovered by scientists in Australia in 1968.

It is 1,000 light-years away, its supernova occurred about 11,000 years ago and roughly once every three years this pulsar suddenly speeds up in rotation.

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Credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/Univ of Toronto/M.Durant et al; Optical: DSS/Davide De Martin

The Vela pulsar makes about 11 complete rotations every second, it also has a glitch.

Source / Image Courtesy

 

A newly discovered star has astonished a team of scientists. They say that nothing at this moment can explain what is happening. The star is called a "pulsar," which is a star that appears to pulse rapidly with intense radio wave emissions. However, this pulsar switches unpredictably between radio and x-ray emissions, leaving astronomers openly baffled.

 

The pulsar in the binary pulsar system PSR J1906+0746 vanished from view due to the space-time warp generated by nearby companion star.

Orbit after orbit, the pulsar travels through a space-time that is curved, which made its spin axis wobble so much that the beams no longer hit Earth. Astrophysicists estimate the pulsar will wobble back into view, but it might take as long as 160 years.

 

Next time you're having a bad day, remember even the stars glitch .... :D