It studied the
Crab pulsar, 2,000 parsecs (6,500 light-years) away in the constellation Taurus, as an early test of whether it could lock onto X-ray signals.
In a paper published in Nature Astronomy, the team documented the results of their eighteen-month study of the
Crab pulsar in the Taurus Constellation and measured the variations of polarisation as this highly magnetised object spins around 30 times every second.
Summary: New Delhi [India], November 7 (ANI): Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) on Monday said that the nation's multi-wavelength space telescope AstroSat measured the X-ray polarisation of the
Crab pulsar (star) in the Taurus constellation.
As a result, Arecibo is renowned for correctly determining the rotation rate of Mercury (1964), discovering the periodicity of the
Crab pulsar (1968) and using its radar facility to provide the first direct image of an asteroid (1989).
The
Crab pulsar, for example, emits both giant radio flares (albeit roughly 1/500,000 as powerful as FRB 121102) and is a conspicuous X-ray source, too.
In order to examine the satellite-borne X-ray instruments, we choose the
Crab pulsar [6] as the calibration target because this pulsar is believed to be one of the best studied objects in the sky and one of the brightest X-ray sources regularly studied.
Pulsars emit a steady beat of radio waves, but some young pulsars, such as the nearby
Crab pulsar, occasionally blast out vigorous pulses.
Hutchinson et al., "Optical timing of the
crab pulsar, NP 0532," Astrophysical Journal, vol.
A more recent paper by Cadez, A., et al, (2003) demonstrated resolving of the
Crab pulsar light curve with a 2.12m telescope to a high degree with 9 degree cut-out widths on a chopper blade.
Among specific topics are the decomposition of the optical polarization components of the
Crab pulsar and its nebula, the analysis of single pulses from radio pulsars at high observing frequencies, the population synthesis of normal radio and gamma-ray pulsars using Markov chain Monte Carlo techniques, symmetry energy effects in the neutron star properties, and radio timing observations of four gamma-ray pulsars at Nanshan.
The observatory, pictured inset, which looks like a garden shed but houses a powerful telescope and other equipment, will be opened on Saturday by astrophysicist Professor Mike Disney, professoremeritusatCardiff university and president of the society Prof Disney discovered the optical component of the
Crab Pulsar in 1969.
They have found that the
Crab Pulsar - a rotating neutron star at the heart of the Crab Nebula, loved by stargazers around the world - is shedding energy at an alarming rate.
