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Pulsars: Astronomical Clocks In The Sky

Pulsars: Astronomical Clocks In The Sky. Team J: Ashley Randall Ashton Butts Priscilla Garcia Jessica Wilkinson Olivia Arrington. Introduction. Pulsars are rapidly rotating neutron stars A neutron star is only ten kilometers in size

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Pulsars: Astronomical Clocks In The Sky

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  1. Pulsars:Astronomical Clocks In The Sky Team J: Ashley Randall Ashton Butts Priscilla Garcia Jessica Wilkinson Olivia Arrington

  2. Introduction • Pulsars are rapidly rotating neutron stars • A neutron star is only ten kilometers in size • They are created in a supernova explosion near the end of a star’s life • Pulsars spin at quick speeds ranging from milliseconds to seconds • Single pulsars spin about once every second, and pulsars in binary systems spin thousands of times every second

  3. Purpose • To learn how to calculate the rotation period of a pulsar • To calculate the size of the pulsar’s orbit • To calculate the luminosity of the pulsar

  4. Methods • Used NASA observations collected with the Chandra X-ray telescope • Used the ds9 computer program to analyze the observations

  5. Materials • DS9 computer program written by NASA • DS9 instruction handbook • Textbook: Horizons: Exploring the Universe by Michael A. Seeds • Lecture Notes: Dr. M. Richards • Chandra X-rayTelescope archives: http://chandra.harvard.edu/ • NASA Chandra Education webpage http://chandra-ed.harvard.edu/activities.html

  6. Procedures • Load the light curve data from the Chandra archives • Light Curve: how light from the pulsar changes with time • We measured the period directly from the light curve • Calculated the average period and standard deviation for the group.

  7. Procedures • The power spectrum finds any patterns in the light curve • We calculated the period from the frequency: Period = 1 . Frequency

  8. Results • Objects studied: Cen X-3, GK Per, Vela pulsar GK Per Cen X-3 Star size = 10 km Rotation period = 4.807 sec Star size = 6000 km Rotation period = 350.87 sec

  9. Results • When we expand the power spectrum for Cen X-3, the peak looks broad • The light from the pulsar is blue-shifted and red-shifted because the pulsar is moving around another object • Measure the spin period and orbital period of Cen X-3 Pulsar moving away from us Pulsar moving towards us

  10. Results Luminosity = 4 distance2 xflux

  11. Conclusions/ Further Research • Astronomical clocks are found in many places in the sky. • We studied the light curves of three astronomical clocks and measured their properties. • We calculated spin periods and confirmed that pulsars spin at very high speeds. They have periods from seconds to milliseconds. • Future work:

  12. Acknowledgements… • Eberly College Of Science • Dr. Daniel Larson, Dean of Eberly College of Science • Dr. Mercedes Richards • Ms. Jody Markley • Mrs. Annie Holmes • Mr. Craig Keiser • Ms. Joanne Nash • UBMS Staff

  13. Any Questions??

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