William Atkins
Friday, 17 October 2008 19:16
Science -
Space
Page 1 of 3
NASA announces the first-of-its-kind discovery on October 16, 2008 through its media release “NASA’s Fermi Telescope discovers first gamma-ray-only pulsar.”
The NASA media release “NASA’s Fermi Telescope discovers first gamma-ray-only pulsar" is found at
NASA CTA-1.
The
Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope made the discovery of this pulsar, which lies within a supernova remnant called CTA 1. (The Fermi website also talks about this exciting new discovery of this gamma-ray-only pulsar.)
The CTA-1 pulsar is about 4,600 light-years away within the constellation Cepheus.
The research conducted in the discovery of CTA-1 has been written up into the article “
The Fermi Gamma-Ray Space Telescope Discovers the Pulsar in the Young Galactic Supernova Remnant CTA 1.” It appeared online on October 16, 2008 in
Science Express.
The abstract to the paper states,
“Energetic young pulsars and expanding blast waves (supernova remnants, SNRs) are the most visible remains after massive stars, ending their lives, explode in core-collapse supernovae.”
Generally, pulsars are highly magnetized neutron stars that spin very fast. Neutron stars result after old stars have exploded out all of their material except for the core, which collapses into a very dense object.
When stars explode it is called a supernova. After most of the material is ejected outward in a gaseous expanding shell, what is left is called a supernova remnant (SNR). Either a neutron star, black hole, or a white dwarf is, thus, formed.
Please read page two for more info on the formation of a pulsar.
