nevret2

Autho: Geoff McNamara

Release: 2008-11-17

Publisher:

Format: Paperback 190 pages

ISBN: 0387765603 (0-387-76560-3)

ISBN 13: 9780387765600

List Price: $29.95

Edition: 1



Description:

Pulsa are rapidly spinning neutron sta, the collapsed cores of once massive sta that ended their lives as supernova explosions. Pulsar rotation rates can reach incredible speeds, up to hundreds of times per second. The story of how an object ‘spins up’ to a significant fraction of the speed of light is fascinating and involves collapsing stellar cores following supernova explosions, while the faster ones result from stellar cannibalism. In this book, Geoff McNamara explores the history, subsequent discovery and contemporary research into pulsar astronomy. The story of pulsa is brought right up to date with the announcement in 2006 of a new breed of pulsar, Rotating Radio Transients (RRATs), which emit short buts of radio signals separated by long pauses. These may outnumber conventional radio pulsa by a ratio of four to one. Geoff McNamara ends by pointing out that, despite the enormous success of pulsar research in the second half of the twentieth century, the real discoveries are yet to be made including, perhaps, the detection of the hypothetical pulsar black hole binary system by the proposed Square Kilometre Array - the largest single radio telescope in the world.





Filesize: 2 MB