Crab Pulsar

Audio is the radio signal from the pulsar in the crab nebula, a massive neutron star spinning at 1800 rpm. The movie was made by the Chandra X-Ray telescope, showing the neutron star, and rippling disturbances created by its magnetic field.
The star's magnetic field focuses radio emission into a beam that rotates like a light house beacon.

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• crab
• pulsar
• neutron
• star
• nebula

[kb7clx]

Interesting, I just slowed this down 8 times with my sound editor, and it seems to have 2 peaks instead of one. Sounds like a fast heartbeat at that speed.

[DonPMitchell]

@kb7clx That makes sense. There are two radio beams going out in opposite directions of the spinning star, so depending on the orientation, probably one of them is aimed more directly at us than the other.

[tibby499]

this thing is spinning at 1800 rpm ... ferrari 458 italia revs up to 9000 rpm .. does that mean the ferrari is better ? :P

[DonPMitchell]

@tibby499 Hehe. Typical pulsars spin a few times a second. But some, like B1937+21, spin at 642 revolutions per second, so they sound like a musical tone. Google for "Sounds of Pulsars" and you can find a page with a number of audio samples.

[VBH8888]

@tibby499 only spinning faster cause its smaller. smaller= faster rotation. I know I know your sarcasm XD

[DonPMitchell]

@VBH8888 Smaller would be faster, and it depends on the angular momentum of the original star. Also, pulsars slow down, so older ones are slower. They slow down because they lose angular momentum via gravity waves, radiation, and interactions with the acretion disk of matter around them.

[BCSpore]

Imagine somthing as big as a large city, yet twice as heavy as the Sun, spinning at a steady rate of 30 rotations per second, and all that Inertia came from the supernova that created it. Plus two giant radiation death-rays coming from the poles of the spinning beast that fry anything that it touches. Reminds us of how vonerable and weak we are in the Universe.

[fatansassy911]

i felt weird inside after watching this any1 else feel the same?

[ispdni1234]

@steakfacetothemax Btw I checked, the crab nebula is 6,500 light years away, so in other words this is how it sounded and looked 6,500 years ago. Now? Who knows... I guess if they have enough information surrounding it (specifically when it became a supernova (1054) and it's size) they maybe able to give a rough estimate of when it will die. Would you believe the nebula expands at about 930 miles per second! (according to wiki)

[DantehMan]

My goodness, 1800rpm...it doesn't even seem possible. I love space so much.

[DonPMitchell]

@BatchDrake This is also why spaceships traveling throught "wormholes" is a bad idea. Yeah, you might go in a wormhole and come out somewhere far away in space, but as a burst of gamma rays and protons and stuff.

[BatchDrake]

@DonPMitchell if we take the intense gravitation pull in the surrounding area in consideration we can talk about a dramatical death where you are literally smashed into the surface and your body explodes (implodes) into a deadly burst of gamma rays.