Music
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Narrator: A pulsar is a rapidly spinning neutron star, which is the small incredibly
dense remnant of much more massive star. A teaspoon of matter
from a neutron star weighs as much as Mount Everest and the neutron star is so compact
that a ball about fifteen miles across contains more matter than our sun.
Neutron stars spin between seven and forty thousand times a
minute and form with incredibly strong magnetic fields. Rapid spin
and intense magnetic fields drive powerful beams of electromagnetic radiation
including gamma rays. As the pulsar rotates, these
beams sweep the sky like a lighthouse. To a distant observer, the pulsar
appears to blink on and off. Pulsars slow down as they
age but some of the oldest pulsars spin hundreds of times a second.
Each of these millisecond pulsars orbits a normal star. Over time,
the impact of gas pulled from the normal star has spun the pulsar up to incredible
speeds. This accretion may be the cause of their weaker
magnetic fields. Despite this, these pulsars also emit gamma
rays.
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Beeping
Beeping
