I am going back out into outer space again for this blog. I want to talk about pulsars. I wonder how many of you have heard about pulsars and know what they are? If you already know everything about them, you can stop reading now, for the rest of you, read on.
A pulsar is a collapsed star that used up its supply of fuel. When a star has no more fuel left to burn and thus insufficient force to keep the star from collapsing it falls in on itself causing a whopper of an explosion, a supernova. When this star collapses into a neutron star, it keeps it angular momentum. That means the smaller it gets the faster it spins. Pulsars spin really fast. This is the what is so incredible to me. They can rotate in less than a second. The strongest pulsar yet discovered rotates at 0.715 seconds and another pulsar was discovered that revolved once every 1.6 millisecond. That is 38,500 rpm. . . Wow!! That is fast for an object that huge. If it were not so compact, it would tear itself apart. Talk about compact, the matter in a neutron star is so compact that a piece the size of sugar cube would weigh over 100 million tons on Earth. No aren't these figures incredible? But they are true. Now I bet you all don't feel quite as heavy when compared to neutron stars. I do hope you have a great day, you hear?
I can't imagine anything larger than maybe a BB spinning that fast. Can you see pulsars through your telescope?
ReplyDeleteFirst, I would have to know where they are located. I would think that I could see them through my scope. They would look like a twinkling star only at exact periods between twinkle.
DeleteBTW, stars twinkle because the light from them is distorted by our upper turbulent atmosphere.
Doggone if Bill didn't know what pulsars are.... what's with you guys, anyway? I'm happy just seeing a shooting star now and then, and I don't even care where it came from or where it's going ;-)
ReplyDeleteGuys know the important things, like what is out in space and what is at the center of the Earth, whereas Gals know just about everything else.
DeleteHAhaaa your title … wondering about what seems incredible .. yep
ReplyDeleteFascinating, Dizzy ~ really is … and yes, I have heard of pulsars … this next big astroid hurtling close to us .. well, 25,000 miles, is it? space is very .… spacious and very fascinating ….
trying to get caught up … glad you're still wondering!
We have had some large asteroids come between the Earth and the Moon. Remember asteroid Apophis?
Delete