Friday, April 4, 2025

Scientists discover pulsar speeding through space

Date:

Share post:

NASA has discovered a pulsar hurtling through space at nearly four million kilometres an hour — so fast that it could travel the distance between Earth and the Moon in just six minutes.
Pulsars are superdense, rapidly spinning neutron stars left behind when a massive star explodes. This one, dubbed PSR J0002+6216 (J0002 for short), sports a radio-emitting tail pointing directly toward the expanding debris of a recent supernova explosion, NASA said in a statement.
“Thanks to its narrow dart-like tail and a fortuitous viewing angle, we can trace this pulsar straight back to its birthplace,” said Frank Schinzel, a scientist at the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO) in the US.
“Further study of this object will help us better understand how these explosions are able to ‘kick’ neutron stars to such high speed,” said Schinzel.
Pulsar J0002 was discovered in 2017 by a citizen-science project called Einstein@Home, which uses time on the computers of volunteers to process Fermi gamma-ray data. Thanks to computer processing time collectively exceeding 10,000 years, the project has identified 23 gamma-ray pulsars to date, NASA said.
Located about 6,500 light-years away in the constellation Cassiopeia, J0002 spins 8.7 times a second, producing a pulse of gamma rays with each rotation. The pulsar lies about 53 light-years from the centre of a supernova remnant called CTB 1. Its rapid motion through interstellar gas results in shock waves that produce the tail of magnetic energy and accelerated particles detected at radio wavelengths using the VLA.
The tail extends 13 light-years and clearly points back to the centre of CTB 1. The team was able to measure how quickly and in what direction the pulsar is moving across our line of sight.
The result supports the idea that the pulsar was kicked into high speed by the supernova responsible for CTB 1, which occurred about 10,000 years ago. J0002 is speeding through space five times faster than the average pulsar, and faster than 99 per cent of those with measured speeds.
It will eventually escape our galaxy, researchers said. (PTI)

Related articles

PM Modi urges Bangladesh’s Yunus to avoid rhetoric, protect minorities

Bangkok, April 4: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday raised the issue of safety and security of minorities...

SC orders Yasin Malik to cross-examine witnesses virtually from Tihar

New Delhi, April 4: The Supreme Court on Friday allowed jailed JKLF chief Yasin Malik to cross-examine witnesses...

India in active talks with domestic pharma exporters amid new US tariff threat

New Delhi, April 4: The Commerce Ministry is in active talks with Indian pharmaceutical exporters amid growing concerns...

Rupee strengthens against dollar amid Trump’s reciprocal tariffs

New Delhi, April 4: The Indian rupee witnessed sharp gains on Friday at below 85 against dollar, as...