Tweeting the Universe: Tiny Explanations of Very Big Ideas by Marcus Chown

Author:Marcus Chown [Chown, Marcus]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780571278442
Barnesnoble:
Published: 2022-07-31T22:26:12+00:00

76. What ore neutron stars and pulsars?

Bonkers fact: you could fit the entire human race in the volume of a sugar cube. Why? Because matter is mind-bogglingly empty.

Naively, you can think of an atom as a mini Solar System, with electrons orbiting like planets around a tiny central ‘ nucleus’

like the Sun.

But picture of atom as mini Solar System fails to convey how amazingly empty the atom is. It is 99.9999999999999 %

empty space.

If you could squeeze all the empty space out of all the atoms in all the people in the world, h umanity would indeed fit in a sugar cube.

Not just mad theory. There are objects out in space where all the empty space has been squeezed out of their atoms.

N eutron stars.

A neutron star is the relic (imploded core) left when a massive star goes supernova. I magine Sun squeezed down to the volume of a mountain.

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If you cou ld go to a neutron star and scoop out a volume the size of a sugar cube, it would i ndeed weigh as m uch as the entire human race.

When a star shrinks to a neutron star, it spins faster like an ice skater pulling in her arms. Spinning neutron stars shout ‘ Here l am ! ‘

I n 1 967, Jocelyn Bell , 24-year-old student, was using radio telescope at Cambridge. Found regular pulses of radio waves from object CP1 91 9.

Bell soon found several other pulsing sources. At first, people thought they were ETs signalling us. Dubbed them LGMs, for Little Green Men.

I n 1 968, Tommy Gold & Franco Pacini realised Bell had fou n d spinning neutron stars. A s they spi n , they emit radio waves i n lighthouse beam .

They were christened ‘ pulsating neutron stars’, or pulsars.

Gravity on surface of a neutron star is 1 00 billion times that on Earth.

So far, three Nobel Prizes have been awarded for pulsars.

None has gone to Dame Jocelyn Bell Burnell. Widely considered a major i njustice.

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