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Fast-Moving Pulsar

posted by LaminatorX on Saturday February 22 2014, @02:30AM   Printer-friendly
from the it's-all-relative dept.

martyb writes:

"Scientists have discovered a pulsar (with an estimated mass of between 1.4 and 2 solar masses) traveling at an estimated 2.5 to 5 million mph (0.0035c to 0.007c). According to NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory:

Originally discovered with the European Space Agency satellite INTEGRAL, the pulsar is located about 60 light-years away from the center of the supernova remnant SNR MSH 11-61A in the constellation of Carina. Its implied speed is between 2.5 million and 5 million mph, making it one of the fastest pulsars ever observed.

By comparison, one of the fastest man-made objects is the Voyager-1 spacecraft, currently traveling at an estimated 38,100 mph relative to the sun, or approximately 0.000056c (5.6 x 10-5 c)."

 
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  • (Score: 2, Interesting) by Daniel Dvorkin on Saturday February 22 2014, @02:46AM

    by Daniel Dvorkin (1099) on Saturday February 22 2014, @02:46AM (#4660) Journal

    Wouldn't you kind of expect a pulsar to be moving fast, since (IIRC) it was created by an asymmetrical supernova explosion? The amount of energy involved in that is mind-boggling.

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  • (Score: 1) by khchung on Saturday February 22 2014, @08:31AM

    by khchung (457) on Saturday February 22 2014, @08:31AM (#4740)

    Then you would have to explain why a supernova would be asymmetrical enough to give a significant boost to the pulsar in any particular direction.

  • (Score: 2) by martyb on Saturday February 22 2014, @02:36PM

    by martyb (76) Subscriber Badge on Saturday February 22 2014, @02:36PM (#4825) Journal

    Daniel Dvorkin (1099) wrote:

    Wouldn't you kind of expect a pulsar to be moving fast, since (IIRC) it was created by an asymmetrical supernova explosion? The amount of energy involved in that is mind-boggling.

    My understanding is the creation of a pulsar does not require an asymmetry supernova. See "Formation" section on wikipedia - Pulsars [wikipedia.org].

    By the way, the quoted mass of a pulsar was not in the linked article, but rather was the result of a quick search on the net. It was also pretty late, so the value of 1.4-2 solar masses may well be incorrect. (Things were moved around from what I had in my submission: http://soylentnews.org/submit.pl?op=viewsub&subid= 187 [soylentnews.org].)

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    • (Score: 2, Informative) by Daniel Dvorkin on Saturday February 22 2014, @03:12PM

      by Daniel Dvorkin (1099) on Saturday February 22 2014, @03:12PM (#4833) Journal

      It doesn't mention asymmetry in the article on pulsars, but it does in the article on supernovas [wikipedia.org]. Looks like the cause is somewhat mysterious, but the phenomenon is well-known.

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      • (Score: 1) by martyb on Saturday February 22 2014, @04:13PM

        by martyb (76) Subscriber Badge on Saturday February 22 2014, @04:13PM (#4860) Journal

        Daniel Dvorkin (1099) wrote:

        It doesn't mention asymmetry in the article on pulsars, but it does in the article on supernovas [wikipedia.org]. Looks like the cause is somewhat mysterious, but the phenomenon is well-known.

        Huh! Well how about that! Thanks for passing along that link - that's what I love about this site! I learn something new every day!

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