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User:Quarl has suggested merging both accretion powered pulsar and rotation powered pulsar into the general pulsar article on the Astronomy WikiProject talk page.
I agree, I don't see a reason by those two should be selected out in particular for merging. Why not also merge magnetars since their mechanism of action is different? Rather each of the individual branch articles should be improved and the pulsar article should be grown with material common of all pulsars - pulsar origins, physics involved, observation methods, history,etc. – Meowist 20:28, 8 July 2007 (UTC)
I took out this:
Some modern Islamic scholars believe that the Qur'an has mentioned the pulsars: "[I swear] by Heaven and the Tariq! And what will convey to you what the Tariq is? The Star Piercing [the darkness]! " (Qur'an, 86:1-3). The Arabic word "Tariq," comes from the root "tarq," whose basic meaning is that of striking hard enough to produce a sound, or hitting. Bearing in mind the word's possible meaning as "beating," "striking hard," our attention may be being drawn to this scientific fact.
Because it's not referenced. The footnote posing as a reference for it read this:
This is not the only scientific fact mentioned in the Quran; many other scientific facts in the variance science fields (e.g. Astronomy, biology, medicine,…etc), which were discovered in the 19th and 20th centuries, are mentioned in the Quran. Harun Yahya. "miracles of the quran".
A website authored by one person is not "some modern Islamic scholars". The claim that people believe that the Qur'an is unequivocally referring to scientific principles for which the ancients had no scientific measures is quite extraordinary, and requires extraordinary citation. As it stands, this reads as one man's theory, if not outright promotion.
I see Harun Yahya already has an article; his theories are more appropriately discussed in that article rather than adding backreferences to every other "scientific fact" supposedly appearing in the Qur'an. 82.95.254.249 13:11, 23 June 2007 (UTC)
Strangely enough the Quran, Muslims' holy book revealed more than 1400 years ago, speaks about pulsars in chapter 86. The original Arabic word used for these stars is 'Tariq'. The verses go on describing the Tariq as the piercing star. Those who translated the word Tariq into other languages did not translate it accurately but most native speakers of Arabic know the meaning of Tariq as 'someone or something knocking on a door or striking with a hammer'. citation needed
I removed a similar addition to the miscellaneous facts portion of the article today. 66.91.241.126 ( talk) 20:30, 18 June 2009 (UTC)
A few examples of things that should probably be in this article. I've searched the web, and can't find them, so anyone with knowledge, please contribute:
The above would help describe what a pulsar is/does, not just the history behind their discover. Thanks to any who can contribute. — Ryan McDaniel 22:17, 6 July 2007 (UTC)
Apparently, the US Air Force detected pulsars a couple of months before Jocelyn Bell discovered them; see [1]. Unfortunately, I can't find a better reference for it than that, hence why I'm commenting here rather than adding it to the article. Mike Peel 10:46, 19 August 2007 (UTC)
Patrick1982 added some interesting new text [2] about Charles Schisler's discovery of pulsars pre-dating that of Bell & Hewish. While there is nothing to doubt Schisler's claim, his result is not unique. Several other groups had discovered pulsars beforehand, but either had not realized what they had found, or did not follow up on it - see for example [3]. I think a discussion of Schisler's and other preceding work (not the least of which would be Minkowski's identification [4] of the stellar remnant in the Crab Nebula in 1942) has a place somewhere in this article, but certainly the main credit for the discovery should go to those who followed through with their discovery and who were in a position to publish their result. Let's discuss this further on the talk page before changing the main article. Tubbs334 11:36, 7 September 2007 (UTC)
To resuscitate this discussion—I removed a sentence placed at the start of the discovery section noting that the optical counterpart of the Crab Pulsar was discovered in 1899. While these archival data of pulsars are interesting, the coverage in the literature clearly supports the fact that Jocelyn Bell Burnell's observations mark the discovery of pulsars. Some coverage of archival data might be added, but it should not be in the first post-lead sentence. James McBride ( talk) 21:50, 1 October 2012 (UTC)
While I understand the desire to include more information about the history of pulsars, I think there's blurring happening here between two different things. Detection and discovery. Without a doubt people detected the results of pulsars long before Bell. Just like nearly every living thing detected gravity before Einstein's work. But what's special, interesting, and useful is realizing what causes the thing that's being detected. The emissions weren't covered, the reality behind them was. So if you want to say the energy emissions of pulsars were *detected* by others before Bell, that's fine. But only someone who understood what they were finding should be said to have *discovered* pulsars. 72.79.76.198 ( talk) 17:26, 25 January 2021 (UTC)
Shouldn't something be said in this article about how pulsars have been proposed for use as an independent check (or alternative time standard) on terrestrial atomic clocks? (See Barycentric Coordinate Time.) I would say it myself if I knew how, but I was trying to do some initial research and found nothing in this article; I think there used to be something about this in one of the various articles about various sorts of pulsars, but haven't found it yet, and really, this is the article that I think it ought to be mentioned in. arkuat (talk) 07:32, 21 February 2008 (UTC)
Now a new type of pulsar that emits gamma ray radiation has been discovered as well.
http://www.universetoday.com/2008/10/17/fermi-telescope-makes-first-big-discovery-gamma-ray-pulsar/ -- Chupon ( talk) 14:30, 21 October 2008 (UTC)
"The gamma-ray-only pulsar lies within a supernova remnant known as CTA 1, ... in the constellation Cepheus. Its lighthouse-like beam sweeps Earth’s way every 316.86 milliseconds."
For X years ago, where X is at most 50 years, only a couple of pulsars where visually identified. What's the current status? I.e.: could the article relate to visual identification. I know for sure that the Crab pulsar is visually identified, but more? ... said: Rursus ( mbork³) 13:00, 14 August 2009 (UTC)
What neither this article or "Neutron Stars" makes clear is WHAT PROPORTION of neutron stars are pulsars. Reading the ambiguous text on the "lighthouse effect", readers could well conclude that ALL neutron stars are pulsars, and that we don't see more of them pulse only because the beam from most of them does not sweep across the Earth. It amazes me how such obvious questions do not cross the minds of those who write this stuff. I gather that most neutron stars are NOT pulsars, though why some are and some are not finds no answer here. The following quote from WP article "Neutron Star" is about as close as we get.
If the surface temperature exceeds 106 kelvin (as in the case of a young pulsar), the surface should be fluid instead of the solid phase observed in cooler neutron stars (temperature <106 kelvin)[10]. Myles325a ( talk) 04:37, 26 September 2009 (UTC)
I can't find any evidence of X-ray emission changes in CTA 1, either in the referenced Atkinson article, or in the science literature (see http://www.iop.org/EJ/article/0004-637X/612/1/398/60375.html). So I took that out, and rephrased its notability to be its pulsations only being seen in the gamma-ray. There's a good chance that X-ray pulsations will be detected in the near future, since the existing X-ray pulsation constraints are weak and further observations are being performed. Craigheinke ( talk) 19:14, 29 November 2009 (UTC)
Some wiki-styled sources refer to the pulsar as being 280 light years away, however http://chandra.harvard.edu/photo/2009/j0108/ gives an estimate of 770 ly. Can someone doublecheck? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 216.239.79.193 ( talk) 04:40, 1 December 2009 (UTC)
This article has no explanation of what the pulsar wind is, and pulsar wind simply redirects back here. 99.55.136.210 ( talk) 04:47, 1 March 2010 (UTC)
Again myself too, I was redirected here searching pulsar wind, and there was no explanation of what it actually is. Infringement153 ( talk) 09:09, 6 December 2010 (UTC)
How is it possible for Neutron Stars (which are supposedly electrically neutral) to have charged particles around them and emit radio pulses? Shouldn't the super strong gravitational field pull the particles into the star and neutralize them? I know that everything with a surface temperature different from it's immediate environment radiates; what is a pulsar's surface temperature? JeepAssembler ( talk) 20:48, 7 August 2010 (UTC)JeepAssembler JeepAssembler ( talk) 20:48, 7 August 2010 (UTC)
How is it possible for a pulsar's magnetic axis to be at a high angle from the axis of rotation? SEppley ( talk) 18:33, 29 April 2012 (UTC)
For 46 years scientists have been perfecting this incomplete model of the Pulsar oscillating source. Did anyone once stop to ask why the 'rotating lighthouse' idea still continues? I seems perfectly inane for intelligent humans to be discussing a mechanical principle left over from 200 years ago when modern engineers can do flashing sources far more simply. In fact the first radio transmitters used the simple tuned spark gap which utilises the non-linear ionised air (plasma) as the feedback loop. No moving parts and ultimately very efficient to have an electrical resonance, hence most modern lighthouses convert to strobes or flashing LEDs. Two charged stars, a bit of plasma atmosphere and resonant lightning does the trick. Find an x-ray machine that uses gravity rather than electricity, I think not!
The trouble is Cosmologists and Particle Physicists have been patching up their wonderful theories for decades. No-one can prove them wrong, although you have to laugh at the list of entities they have cooked up! I recommend a read of this page for more straight talking. Cigarshaped ( talk) 21:04, 19 January 2014 (UTC)
Please tell what the life cycle of a pulsar is. Article tells how they form. Since they keep giving off energy, what's the long term fate of them? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 72.83.70.206 ( talk) 22:43, 1 May 2011 (UTC)
This article could be improved by adding a section explaining Pulsar Winds. The only article with information regarding it, is the 'pulsar wind nebula' page. A pulsar wind is a significant aspect of the Pulsars, hence adding a section on it should be prioritized on further expansions of the article.
Pulsar wind nebula - page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pulsar_wind_nebula — Preceding unsigned comment added by Fredrikdn ( talk • contribs) 14:12, 29 July 2012 (UTC)
'The scientists identified a pulsar that is able to dramatically change the way in which it shines. In just a few seconds, the star can quiet its radio waves while at the same time it makes its X-ray emissions much brighter. The research “challenges all proposed pulsar emission theories,” the team writes in the Jan. 25 edition of the journal Science and reopens a decades-old debate about how these stars work." ' From http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/01/130124183444.htm. -- Jo3sampl ( talk) 19:33, 25 January 2013 (UTC)
The section on significant pulsars section has been tagged as "trivia" for awhile. It was just removed today (though I restored it) with the comment "no criterion for 'significance'". I think there are pretty clearly two criteria that encompass the majority of listed pulsars: "firsts" and record holders of various types. There are probably a couple of pulsars that don't really belong (and perhaps I'll just go ahead and trim the list a little after this), but for the most part it seems to be a fairly selectively populated list, and thus isn't truly a trivia section. I think the content and layout of the section could be improved, but disagree completely with removing it entirely. James McBride ( talk) 04:54, 17 April 2013 (UTC)
To root this article in something practical, how about talking about how the earth's position compared to 14 pulsars was the method used on the Pioneer plaques to describe our location to "aliens"? I think a pic of the plaque would be a good graphic here as well. It would show a newby one reason they are so important. Pb8bije6a7b6a3w ( talk) 15:54, 14 May 2013 (UTC)
The sentence "It was not until a second pulsating source was discovered in a different part of the sky that the 'LGM hypothesis' was entirely abandoned" makes it sound like the little green men theory was disproven because there was more than one pulsar discovered. I'm pretty sure there's more science to it than that, but the cite given is not available to ordinary earthlings. Can someone summarize the science that tells us that pulsars are natural phenomena? Kortoso ( talk) 17:22, 11 December 2013 (UTC)
The organization and clarity of this article still leave much to be desired. I hope my recent edit clarifies the evidence connecting neutron stars and pulsars, since that issue seemed to underlie the recent edits by User:Cigarshaped. I reverted these edits, because I am not aware of any credible source that argues for an alternative to rotating neutron stars as the source of pulsar emission, and no such source was provided in the edits of User:Cigarshaped. I would like to avoid any edit warring, so if there is more that could be done to improve this area of the article, suggestions are welcome, and I can try to improve the article further. James McBride ( talk) 06:14, 20 January 2014 (UTC)
I don't have time for Revert Wars, however, I would ask what is necessary to provide a credible source? There is an extremely promising proposal which follows on from "magnetospheric disk-field-aligned-current transmission line system as the origin of the observed radiation". "Radiation Properties of Pulsar Magnetospheres: Observation, Theory, and Experiment". The SAO/NASA Astrophysics Data System. Healy and Peratt were approaching the pulsar emission from an telecommunication/ electrical engineering POV. Anthony Peratt is a world expert on plasma and knows its emissions well. Since 99.999% of visible universe is plasma Hannes Alfven it suprises me that not more research explores astrophysical phenomena in plasma terms.
The characteristic form of pulsars strangely mimics the signature of lightning strikes. Surely an electrical discharge is a far more plausible explanation for a regular em pulse, particularly when the frequency exceeds 600Hz. I'll say it again. The earliest radio transmitters employed tuned spark gaps in all their noisy glory. Students easily knock up a relaxation oscillator with a pair of capacitors (stars) and a non-linear resistor (plasma). Why should Nature be any different. Modern lighthouse operators are binning their rotating mirrors in favour of strobes or flashing LEDs. What is more efficient? What makes practical sense?
I recommend a read of this page for more straight talking. Cigarshaped ( talk) 18:55, 20 January 2014 (UTC)
It's a bit unfortunate that I could not read the full paper as I would have been more reluctant to quote anything with moving parts at its centre. It is also extremely disturbing that an entire disciplne has failed to come up with a much simpler alternative such as the plasma discharge model. My reference to terrestrial lightning was meant to lead on to cosmic lightning on a stellar scale. As plasma is scalable to 28 orders of magnitude [ [5]], any laboratory or terrestrial phenomema can be transferred to the star (or even galactic) situation.
"I think that reframing the article in order to cast doubt on the consensus in the astrophysics community that pulsars are powered by neutron stars would place undue weight on alternative models." Well if you don't give them a kick, they will continue to waste valuable time and resources on this fruitless mechanical hypothesis. Meanwhile the world heads for various crises, totally unprepared for the effects of a galactic mutation of our solar configuration. Our only hope is to start respecting the electrical nature of this delicate universe. I am convinced that our ignorance is being deliberately orchestrated, in order that we will be completely helpless when something serious happens. Anyway you are in a powerful position to influence the next generation of scientists. Breed morons indoctrinated with Einsteinian/mathematical thinking OR free-thinking engineering-based researchers. Here's [ [6]] a possible hope. Cigarshaped ( talk) 21:44, 20 January 2014 (UTC)
Hello! In looking up pulsars, I saw the GIF Crab_Lucky_video2.gif [7] (used in both the Pulsar and Crab Pulsar articles) caption simply saying that the GIF's animation speed was slowed down to illustrate the Crab Pulsar's pulses. The articles state that the Crab Pulsar's rotation period is 33 milliseconds, which is 1980 rotations per minute. What I can't seem to find, either on Wikipedia or via Googling other sources, is roughly how much the GIF is slowed down. The GIF appears to be about 1.5 seconds long to me, using Firefox. I think it would be both interesting and informative to have the caption state how much it was slowed down. I don't think '33 milliseconds' would be easy to grasp for the average person, while (for example, if my guess and math are right) 'slowed down by 45 times/4500%' would be more illustrative. Thanks! - Lafin T. Jack 23:34, 27 March 2014 (UTC)
What shape and duty cycle are the pulses, and what frequency spectra (of the various type of pulsar). How does pulse width compare to the dispersion ? How do they compare to fast radio bursts ? - Where to look ? - Rod57 ( talk) 12:18, 4 April 2015 (UTC)
Yes! For individual neutron stars (pulsars or not), what are the frequencies of the radio emissions? A spectrum analyzer plot should show. The radio frequencies could identify particles and processes. 173.56.18.42 ( talk) 18:31, 8 February 2016 (UTC)BG
For all pulsars known in 2013 : See fig S2 on p8 of Supplementary materials for 'A Population of Fast Radio Bursts at Cosmological Distances', inc from Magellanic clouds. - Rod57 ( talk) 01:21, 7 April 2015 (UTC)
Since there is a table of pulsar ages, can we say how they are calculated - What does it depend on apart from period ? - Rod57 ( talk) 01:29, 7 April 2015 (UTC)
On the origin of a highly dispersed coherent radio burst (doi: 10.1111/j.1745-3933.2012.01306.x) says at least 14 of the pulsars (known in 2012) are known to exhibit giant pulses (inc the crab nebula pulsar). - Rod57 ( talk) 01:46, 7 April 2015 (UTC)
I have a vague memory of pulsars being considered as an indication of superluminal velocities in 1967, just after the little green men hypothesis was detroyed. It went something like this:
In 1967, the only objects thought to exist with the same energy as pulsars were quasars and, for a time, they were thought of as a type of quasars. Pulsars, as well as quasars, had a redshift which meant (in 1967) they were several million light-years away. However, they pulsed with a frequency of something like a second. Therefore, the generation mechanism couldn't be greater than one light-second across. Thus pulsars (A) must have enough energy to be detectible from millions of light-years (way less than one yocto-arc) and (B) must fit into a space not larger than the distance from Earth to the Moon. So we must examine new sources of energy and the possibility of FTL communication.
Of course, pulsars turned out to be neutron stars (mostly in our galaxy) and the red shift was due to their deep gravitational wells. But if someone could find sources, it would be a nice addendum to the Discovery section. Even if you can't, we should say something about pulsar's redshift. -- RoyGoldsmith ( talk) 11:12, 23 December 2017 (UTC)
That's not what the cited NYT article says and that sentence doesn't even make any sense. Atomic clocks are accurate to the nanosecond. How can pulsars be used as clocks that are accurate to the nanosecond!? — Preceding unsigned comment added by Emilgul ( talk • contribs) 21:29, 19 September 2018 (UTC)
Since recent discovery the longest period neutron star pulsar isnt PSR J2144-3933 anymore but PSR J0250+5854 with a period of 23.5 s.
Source: http://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/1538-4357/aade88/meta https://phys.org/news/2018-10-student-slowest-pulsar-star.html — SuperErten ( talk) 21:29, 23 October 2018 (UTC)
Attracting much press attention. Jim.henderson ( talk) 02:21, 26 March 2019 (UTC)
Currently, spider stars are not described in Wikipedia. However, this seems just a proposed name as I found it in the following preprint:
The article uses also further designations: black widow (special kind of spider star), redback systems, ...
Maybe worth to mention in the article? --
Ernsts (
talk)
18:50, 19 January 2021 (UTC)
This article is or was the subject of a Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment. Further details are available
on the course page. Student editor(s):
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Above undated message substituted from Template:Dashboard.wikiedu.org assignment by PrimeBOT ( talk) 07:30, 17 January 2022 (UTC)
"PSR J0901-4046" Discovery of a radio-emitting neutron star with an ultra-long spin period of 76s with unusual spin properties. Notable ? - Rod57 ( talk) 13:31, 31 May 2022 (UTC)
The Pulsar is mentioned in the Iskamic Holly book Al-Quran. There are 113 Suras in the Quran each containes a certain number of verses and has it's own titke.. One of those Suras is titled The Pulsar and starts with the verse" The Pulsar and you woulden't know what is the Pulsar. IT is the piercing star" 108.7.231.165 ( talk) 00:43, 3 July 2024 (UTC)