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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, 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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