Space
Pulsars and Measuring Cosmic Distances
- Context: Indian astronomers have introduced a new technique to estimate distances in space by observing how pulsars interact with the interstellar medium they move through.
About Pulsars
- Nature: Pulsars are extremely magnetised, fast-spinning neutron stars that release beams of electromagnetic radiation from their magnetic poles.
- Formation: They are the dense remnants left behind after massive stars (around 1.4–2.3 times the Sun’s mass) undergo supernova explosions.
- Structure & Density: A pulsar packs more mass than the Sun into a compact sphere of about 20 km, consisting mainly of neutrons.
- Rotation Speed: These objects rotate incredibly fast, from a few times per second to several hundred times per second in the case of millisecond pulsars.
- Magnetic Strength: Their magnetic fields are extraordinarily powerful—trillions of times stronger than Earth’s enabling them to accelerate charged particles and produce focused, beam-like radiation.
