The U.S. Naval Research Laboratory, collaborating with the Fermi Large Area Telescope, reports discovering 294 gamma-ray pulsars, surpassing the initial count from 15 years ago.
The Fermi catalog now exceeds 340 objects, advancing understanding of these cosmic clocks. A gamma-ray scanning space telescope has identified 294 new powerful dead stars, significantly expanding the Fermi catalog from less than 10 known pulsars in 2008.
Fermi Telescope Unveils Pulsar Secrets
The recently published Third Fermi Large Area Telescope Catalog of Gamma-Ray Pulsars in the Astrophysical Journal provides valuable insights into these mysterious celestial objects, offering a comprehensive compilation of information to aid exploration.
Astrophysicist David Smith from the Bordeaux Astrophysics Laboratory emphasizes the catalog's significance, noting its relevance to diverse astrophysical research areas, including cosmic rays, stellar evolution, and the quest for gravitational waves and dark matter.
Pulsars, a subset of neutron stars, exhibit unique characteristics, emitting powerful radiation beams akin to cosmic spotlights. Millisecond pulsars (MSPs), rotating at incredible speeds, are capable of completing a single rotation within 10 milliseconds.
Highlighting the extraordinary speeds, the catalog reveals the fastest-known pulsar rotating at an astonishing 716 times per second. These pulsar beams, akin to a cosmic lighthouse, have the potential to intersect with Earth during their rotation.
Moreover, the catalog highlights that approximately 10% of known pulsars emit gamma rays, representing a crucial subset for scientific study. This gamma-ray emission, often associated with powerful magnetic fields, enables the acceleration of particles to high energies, generating bursts of invisible, intense light.
With millisecond-scale rotation rates, the comprehensive catalog includes 144 MSPs, offering applications in space navigation and gravitational wave detection. It facilitates tests of relativity and provides valuable insights into space-time anomalies.
Astronomer Lucas Guillemot underscores the transformative impact of Fermi's observations, revealing that MSPs predominantly radiate in gamma rays, now constituting half of the catalog. This comprehensive catalog expands our understanding of pulsars, unlocking their potential contributions to various scientific domains and positioning them as crucial tools in our exploration of the cosmos.
Navigational Limits, Gamma-Ray Transformations, and the Surge of 'Spider' Pulsars
The results from the pulsar timing array have practical implications, particularly in limiting the precision of using pulsars for navigation and timing due to spacetime distortions. Pulsar-based navigation, analogous to GPS satellites, extends beyond Earth's orbit, with the study establishing the ultimate stability limit.
Fermi's gamma-ray detection capability is transforming pulsar timing array work, eliminating the need for radio astronomers and reducing potential errors in measurements. Dr. Kerr highlights Fermi's sensitivity in constraining gravitational waves independently, avoiding the systemic errors associated with radio waves.
The study also reveals a significant increase in "spider" pulsars, a phenomenon where the intense radiation and particle wind from a pulsar erode its binary companion, creating a puffball of evaporated material. Fermi, particularly adept at finding these "spiders," benefits from gamma rays' ability to pass through, offering insights into their origins and contributing to the array of discoveries made with Fermi.
Megan DeCesar, a scientist from George Mason University working at NRL, finds the surge in spider pulsars intriguing and believes studying them will enhance our understanding of their origins and the multitude of discoveries facilitated by Fermi.
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