Tag: pulsars
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Sizing up the weirdest objects in the universe
[ This blog is dedicated to tracking my most recent publications. Subscribe to the feed to keep up with all the science stories I write! ] How big is a neutron star? Astrophysicists are combining multiple methods to reveal the secrets of some of the weirdest objects in the universe. For Symmetry Magazine: Neutron stars…
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Nuclear pasta and neutron stars
[ This blog is dedicated to tracking my most recent publications. Subscribe to the feed to keep up with all the science stories I write! ] The Inside of a Neutron Star Looks Spookily Familiar Exotic ultra-compressed matter can look like pasta, among other things For Nautilus: Hot fluids of neutrons that flow without friction,…
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Be very very quiet, we’re hunting gravitational waves
[ This blog is dedicated to tracking my most recent publications. Subscribe to the feed to keep up with all the science stories I write! ] Gravitational waves and where to find them Advanced LIGO has just begun its search for gravitational waves For Symmetry Magazine: For thousands of years, astronomy was the province of…
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I Love Q, and now you can too!
I wrote a feature story for Physics World on an interesting little discovery about neutron stars, but unfortunately the article wasn’t in their free online edition. HOWEVER, the editors have kindly let me repost the article here in PDF format for free download! (Here’s the summary I wrote a few weeks ago.) Physics World is…
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The three little words every pulsar wants to hear
[ This blog is dedicated to tracking my most recent publications. Subscribe to the feed to keep up with all the science stories I write! UPDATE: you can now download this article in PDF format! See the follow-up post or the update below.] I can’t help falling in Love with Q From Physics World: The…
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The week in review (October 13 – 19)
I’m at GeekGirlCon this weekend, so I’m busy with non-writing activities as part of the DIY Science Zone. Thanks to our Fearless Leader Dr. “Nick Fury” Rubidium for putting our part of the event together! Where Nature Hides the Darkest Mystery of All (Nautilus): Even though there’s no solid barrier, the event horizon of a…
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General relativity holds up under extreme gravity test
The general theory of relativity is the reigning champion of gravitational theories: it’s withstood tests in the Solar System, near black holes, and in binary systems. Most recently, astronomers performed detailed observations of a pulsar-white dwarf binary system, which provided an exquisite example of general relativity in action. Pulsars and white dwarfs are both the…
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Much ado about nothing in today’s dark matter non-announcement
OK, I might be feeling a little cranky about this, but my article for Ars Technica is a little more measured. I’ll have a longer analysis for Galileo’s Pendulum tomorrow, for those who want it. The short version: the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer (AMS-02) is a particle detector installed on the International Space Station. For several…
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Pulsar eats companion star, burps gamma rays
Pulsars are rapidly rotating neutron stars—the dense remnants of stars much more massive than the Sun. Some pulsars are in binary systems, and when they feed off their companion star, their rotation rate can increase until they’re spinning hundreds of times per second. Known as millisecond pulsars, these are often also strong emitters of gamma…
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Spinning pulsar, got to slow down
(This headline was my original choice for the article, which was understandably rejected by my editors. So, you get to read it here instead.) Pulsars are rapidly-spinning neutron stars, the very small dense remnants of stars at least 8 times more massive than the Sun. Their pulses are intense beams of light that sweep across…
Bowler Hat Science 