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Pulsars

A pulsar is nothing more than a young neutron star, with a pole that points towards Earth.

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Is a pulsar a black hole?

No, although you can think of a pulsar as a "black hole wannabe that couldn't quite come up with enough mass".

A "pulsar" was named that because of the rapid, perfectly timed light and radio pulses that it emits. Scientists later figured out that a rapidly rotating neutron star would behave just that way, so we strongly suspect that that's what pulsars are; rapidly rotating neutron stars.

In the hierarchy of "dead stars", there are white dwarfs, where the star's mass is supported by electron pressure; all the atoms are crushed together by gravity so that they are a super-dense solid. White dwarf stars come from suns about the size of our own.

A bigger sun, when it dies, will be crushed even more by its greater gravity, and only the inter-nuclear pressure of atomic nuclei can resist it. The electrons are crushed into the protons, the thought goes, leaving only neutrons, like one enormous atomic nucleus. We call them "neutron stars", or, if they are spinning, pulsars. Various writers have called the stuff "neutronium" or "collapsed matter" or "degenerate matter".

Still more massive stars have even more gravity, and the pressure crushed them still further until they become .... we have no idea what. The enormous gravity traps even light, leaving a "black hole in space". which is where the name "black hole" came from.

How fast does a pulsar spin?

Some spin up to hundreds of times a second.

AT LEAST ONE OF THEM HAS BEEN MEASURED TO SPIN 700 HUNDRED TIMES PER SECOND, AND OTHERS THAT MAY EVEN SPIN FASTER.

What makes the Crab pulsar somewhat unusual among pulsars in general?

Apart from being fairly young, it's one of the few to have a planet orbiting it. [Though this observation has yet to be authenticated]

It could also be one of the few pulsars where it's age is confirmed as the remnant was formed from SN1054 [See related question]

What is a pulsar?

A supernova leaves behind a tiny object termed a neutron star, which is far smaller than the Earth. It is the core of the star that exploded. The protons and electrons of its atoms have been squashed together by the force of the supernova, and they form the atomic particles known as neutrons.

A neutron star is unimaginably dense. It contains the mass of the Sun, but has that mass squeezed into a ball perhaps 20km (12 1/2 miles) across. Further, neutron stars are so small that they can spin very rapidly, many times per second or faster. When they spin they emit electromagnetic radiation which can appear as flashes from earth.

If the magnetic pole of the neutron star is "pointed" [See related link - Pictorial of pulsar] towards Earth, they are called pulsars, as they "pulse" as they spin and can be detected.

The flashes produced by the pulsars are detected as the electro magnetic radio waves caught up by the radio telescopes

The most notable pulsar is PSR B1919+21 with a period of 1.3373 seconds. When it was first discovered it was dubbed "LGM 1" for little green men 1, as the astronomers believed that only extraterrestrial life could generate such a precise signal.

See related links for more information.

The Pulsar is a car model by Nissan, but this question is in the Category of Astronomy, and its answer reflects that.

How hot is a pulsar?

A Pulsar is nothing more than a neutron star which points towards Earth [See related question]

A newly formed neutron star would have a temperature of 1011 - 1012 Kelvin, but after a year, it will cool down to 106 (a million) Kelvin, due to the large number of neutrinos it emits.

Are pulsars a kind of neuron star?

No, neurons are cells which are found in brains - nothing to do with stars.

Is the density of a pulsar greater than the density of a white dwarf?

The density of a pulsar or neutron star is much greater than that of a white dwarf.

A typical (if there is such a thing) neutron star has a density of between 8.4 × 1016 to 1 × 1018 kg/m3 whereas a white dwarf has a density of about 1 × 109 kg/m3

What does pulsar sss stand for?

In the context of motorcycles, Pulsar SSS stands for "Super Sport Series." It is a designation given by the manufacturer Bajaj to indicate a higher-performance variant of their Pulsar motorcycle lineup.

Why are pulsars hot?

Pulsars are hot because they are highly magnetized and rapidly rotating neutron stars. The intense magnetic fields generated by pulsars accelerate particles to high energies, creating high temperatures. Additionally, the rapid rotation of pulsars causes friction and generates heat within their interiors.

Is a pulsar a white dwarf?

A pulsar is a type of neutron star, a collapsed core of an extremely massive star that exploded in a supernova. Whereas white dwarfs have incredibly high densities by earthly standards, neutron stars are even denser, cramming roughly 1.3 solar masses into a city-sized sphere.