Fermi Satellite Clocks Pulsar Going 2.5 Million Miles Per Hour (upi.com) 59
schwit1 quotes UPI:
Astronomers have discovered a pulsar traveling at unprecedented speeds. Observations by NASA's Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope suggest the star is moving through space at 2.5 million miles per hour.... "Thanks to its narrow dart-like tail and a fortuitous viewing angle, we can trace this pulsar straight back to its birthplace," Frank Schinzel, a scientist at the National Radio Astronomy Observatory in New Mexico, told NASA. "Further study of this object will help us better understand how these explosions are able to 'kick' neutron stars to such high speed...."
Scientists named the high-speed pulsing star PSR J0002+6216, or J0002 for short. The star is located in the Cassiopeia constellation, 6,500 light-years from Earth... Analysis of the pulsar's trajectory and pulsing tail suggest the spinning neutron star was ejected by a supernova named CTB 1. Scientists estimated J0002 was expelled from CTB 1 approximately 10,000 years ago.
Scientists aren't totally sure how J0002 accelerated to such tremendous speeds. In the wake of the supernova explosion from which the pulsar originated, expelled gas and dust from the exploded companion star likely outraced J0002. Eventually, the shell of stellar shrapnel was slowed by interactions with interstellar gas, but astronomers theorize that some of stellar debris may have coalesced into a region of dense matter, forming a "gravitational tugboat" that is pulling J0002 through space.
J0002 was discovered by "citizen scientists" scanning data from NASA's Fermi satellite, according to the article.
"Participants in the Einstein@Home project have identified 13 gamma ray pulsars."
Scientists named the high-speed pulsing star PSR J0002+6216, or J0002 for short. The star is located in the Cassiopeia constellation, 6,500 light-years from Earth... Analysis of the pulsar's trajectory and pulsing tail suggest the spinning neutron star was ejected by a supernova named CTB 1. Scientists estimated J0002 was expelled from CTB 1 approximately 10,000 years ago.
Scientists aren't totally sure how J0002 accelerated to such tremendous speeds. In the wake of the supernova explosion from which the pulsar originated, expelled gas and dust from the exploded companion star likely outraced J0002. Eventually, the shell of stellar shrapnel was slowed by interactions with interstellar gas, but astronomers theorize that some of stellar debris may have coalesced into a region of dense matter, forming a "gravitational tugboat" that is pulling J0002 through space.
J0002 was discovered by "citizen scientists" scanning data from NASA's Fermi satellite, according to the article.
"Participants in the Einstein@Home project have identified 13 gamma ray pulsars."
Some things (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Some things (Score:5, Informative)
0.37% speed of light
Re: (Score:2)
You're right. Lost one zero (don't know how) and I cannot edit the original post.
What a shame :(
Re: (Score:1)
Re: (Score:1)
0.37% speed of light
Yep, a bit over a third of one percent of the speed of light. Which means that on a space station orbiting it, the rate of time would be so slow that, for each 365 days that pass on Earth, they would only experience around 364 days, 23 hours, and 55.5 minutes.
Over a period of a million years their clocks would fall behind ours by about 6.83 years! Everyone get the same math?
Frame of reference (Score:3, Insightful)
Its speed is relative to what?
Re: (Score:1)
Apparently the speed is relative to Europe.
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Its speed is relative to what?
Odds are good that it is against geocentric or heliocentric frame of reference, the paper will tell that. However if you are looking for an absolute frame of reference, CMB is there to help.
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Na it's relative to the speed of light which is absolute.
http://www.einstein-online.inf... [einstein-online.info]
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Re:Some things (Score:4, Insightful)
Something else lost it.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gravity_assist
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A super nova is an exploding sun. So one sun in orbit of another sun. At detonation, one sun loses a lot of mass, blown out into space, a whole lot of mass, and compresses the core. So substantially altered gravitational fields, releasing the sun from orbit, plus a whole lot of gravitational mass rushing past it as well as the direct impact of the shockwave. Then you have the electromagnetic impact, do they have same basic charge and now repel each other, the exploding and expanding sun and the orbiting sun
Sir ... (Score:2)
Do you know why I pulled you over?
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Cop: you were doing exactly 112.604 km/hr
Physicist: now I'm lost!
1.1x10^6 m/s (Score:5, Informative)
1.1E6 m/s .0037c
Or
Mph? (Score:3, Interesting)
Why not translate it into the units I understand? What is that in Celsius??*
Every European in Slashdot
Re:Mph? (Score:5, Funny)
6.7 billion (thousand million) furlongs/fortnight.
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Why don't you fund your own research and stop complaining about the Americans doing their own? Then you can have all the Celsius you want!!
Every American on Slashdot, an American website.
Re: Miles!?! (Score:1)
Ones that produce all the science and technology the rest of the world uses.
That's no pulsar... (Score:3)
That's no pulsar...
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Main link is behind a no-adblocker wall. (Score:2)
Anyone have an alternate for the main link? I turn my adblocker off only when I get an assurance, in writing, that the site will cover all my expenses if I get drive-by malware.
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https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2019/nasa-s-fermi-satellite-clocks-cannonball-pulsar-speeding-through-space
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Converted into a 'defective speedometer' fix it ticket.
You should have seen the cop's reaction in court. It was priceless, but I did have to move, it was only 110 in a 25.
That's just your mom (Score:1)
Where did you mom jokes come from?
I don't think I ever heard one 10 years ago
Now they're everywhere.
Where is the Galactic Highway Patrol? (Score:1)
Someone should arrest these speeding pulsars in case they crash into something!
Relativistic speeds (Score:2)
I'm a bit disappointed. I was hoping it moves at relativistic speeds. Unfortunately 0.37% of c isn't even getting close.
Are bad jokes all Slashdot has become? (Score:2)
Opened this article looking for some insightful comments about what this means, how this will impact our understanding of space and the universe and what do I get? A bunch of jokes about the use of the term 'miles'. [sigh]
Voltron! (Score:2)
This is not a pulsar, it's Voltron on its way to save another planet.
Jokes aside: At this distance how do we know this isn't some massive spaceship traveling at nearly the speed of light?