The One With Pulsars
Hey, guys!!! Um...and girls. Um...and any other type of creature that may be out there stumbling across my domain. WHAT's UP?! Sorry about taking a few days to post again. Believe or not, I have actually been busy!! What? Sutdying? Who said that? Don't make me get the hose...
Anyway, uneventful week thus far. You all know what a colossal disappointment this weekend was. No rain. Few clouds. Mucho irritation. I suppose that's not a very good attitude. I mean, if we got NOTHING, then I guess that means that the overall damage of the hurricane was less than projected. And that's nice...
Dude, I wanted some rain. *sniff* OH! While I am thinking about it, certain members of the inner circle need to UPDATE THEIR BLOGS! I'm not naming names, Diana, but I think you know who you are, Diana. BY THE WAY! You MUST go to Seth's Blog and find the link with the L.A. county fair commercials. ABSOLUTELY HYSTERICAL! Does it scare anybody else that this is now where Seth lives? Or that I can kinda see him in both of these commercials? ;-)
What was I going to write about? Oh, yeah...pulsars. So, I had to write a paper on something astronomical for my Astronomy lab today, so I chose to write about pulsars. I mean, pulsar - that's a cool word, right? Let me tell you what a pulsar is.
***ENTERING ASTRONOMY LESSON***
Basically, when a very large star dies, it explodes into a supernova (easy, right? So far, so good). The portion of the supernova that draws the most attention is the cloud of dust and gas that fles off for lightyears in every direction. These clouds come from the outer layers of the star blowing away. The inner layers become super-condensed to the point that protons and electrons bond to form neutrons...eventually coalescing into a...dun dun DUN...Neutron Star. Now, a neutron star is extremely dense (a tablespoon of neutron star would weigh a billion tons on earth) and spins extremely fast. This creates an intense magnetic field around the star. Now, a pulsar is a neutron star that is emitting energy from its magnetic poles (there are a number of reasons for this to happen, but since most of you are already lost, I'll skip it) as it spins. In the case of earth, the north and south poles indicate the rotational axis of our planet. But a compass points to MAGNETIC north, which is not quite lined up with axial north. Does that make sense? Good...moving along. In a pulsar, magnetic north and axial north are far enough apart that the spinning of the star around its axis only allows us to see one pole at a time as they rotate. Since the poles are emitting energy, we see the star "pulse" as the magnetic poles spin into view.
***END ASTRONOMY LESSON***
Now, wasn't that cool? ;-) That was what my paper was about. I just wanted you to share in my misery.
And now, I think I will head to bed. Everyone, have a good night!
Anyway, uneventful week thus far. You all know what a colossal disappointment this weekend was. No rain. Few clouds. Mucho irritation. I suppose that's not a very good attitude. I mean, if we got NOTHING, then I guess that means that the overall damage of the hurricane was less than projected. And that's nice...
Dude, I wanted some rain. *sniff* OH! While I am thinking about it, certain members of the inner circle need to UPDATE THEIR BLOGS! I'm not naming names, Diana, but I think you know who you are, Diana. BY THE WAY! You MUST go to Seth's Blog and find the link with the L.A. county fair commercials. ABSOLUTELY HYSTERICAL! Does it scare anybody else that this is now where Seth lives? Or that I can kinda see him in both of these commercials? ;-)
What was I going to write about? Oh, yeah...pulsars. So, I had to write a paper on something astronomical for my Astronomy lab today, so I chose to write about pulsars. I mean, pulsar - that's a cool word, right? Let me tell you what a pulsar is.
***ENTERING ASTRONOMY LESSON***
Basically, when a very large star dies, it explodes into a supernova (easy, right? So far, so good). The portion of the supernova that draws the most attention is the cloud of dust and gas that fles off for lightyears in every direction. These clouds come from the outer layers of the star blowing away. The inner layers become super-condensed to the point that protons and electrons bond to form neutrons...eventually coalescing into a...dun dun DUN...Neutron Star. Now, a neutron star is extremely dense (a tablespoon of neutron star would weigh a billion tons on earth) and spins extremely fast. This creates an intense magnetic field around the star. Now, a pulsar is a neutron star that is emitting energy from its magnetic poles (there are a number of reasons for this to happen, but since most of you are already lost, I'll skip it) as it spins. In the case of earth, the north and south poles indicate the rotational axis of our planet. But a compass points to MAGNETIC north, which is not quite lined up with axial north. Does that make sense? Good...moving along. In a pulsar, magnetic north and axial north are far enough apart that the spinning of the star around its axis only allows us to see one pole at a time as they rotate. Since the poles are emitting energy, we see the star "pulse" as the magnetic poles spin into view.
***END ASTRONOMY LESSON***
Now, wasn't that cool? ;-) That was what my paper was about. I just wanted you to share in my misery.
And now, I think I will head to bed. Everyone, have a good night!
posted by Jason Hunt at
10:37 PM
2 Comments:
Maybe I'm a nerd... (oh, who are we kidding? I'm a HUGE nerd!) but I actually found that fascinating. I like astronomy!
By
Anonymous, At
12:11 PM, September 28, 2005
That was cool! I didn't totally track everything that you said (might be because I have been doing math for the past 3 hrs and my brain isn't working well right now!) but it was interesting. Thanks for the lesson :)
By
Emily, At
9:24 PM, September 28, 2005
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