
The biggest gamma ray pulsar in the Milky Way was fount in the Tarantula Nebula.
Recently, a team comprised of astronomers and astrophysicists have made a stunning discovery. A gamma-ray pulsar was found in Tarantula Nebula, on the outskirts of the Milky Way. The Tarantula Nebula is situated in the Magellanic Cloud. The distance between Earth and the Tarantula Nebula is almost 160.000 light-years.
According to the scientists who have made this stupendous discovery, it seems that the gamma-ray pulsar is brighter than any known pulsar in our galaxy. The brightest known gamma-ray pulsar was situated in the Crab Nebula. But it seems that the new pulsar surpasses the old one both in beauty and in brightness. By their early estimates, it would seem that the gamma-ray pulsar from the Tarantula Nebula is 10 times brighter than the one from the Crab Nebula.
Needless to say that pulsar took by scientists by surprise. They said that they have observed this pulsar before but have overlooked it for one reason or another. The last time they checked on the pulsar, it was emitting light X-Ray.
A pulsar ratio star is considered to be a magnetized neutron star, which rotates around an orbit. A radio pulsar is capable of emitting high levels of electromagnetic radiation. These type of star, referred as neutron star, have a very dense mass and have brief rotational periods.
The very first pulsar was detected back in 1987, on the 28th of November by astronomers Jocelyn Bell Burnell and Anthony Hewish, although the scientific community acknowledge the existence of such celestial phenomenon back in 1933.
Typically, a radio pulsar is formed when the core of a massive star is compressed. This compression phenomenon usually occurs during a supernova. Then the supernova collapses the massive star even further, the result being the formation of a so-called neutron star.
The newly form neutron star somehow manages to keep its angular momentum, therefore the star is born with high rotational speed.
According to the taxonomy posted by astronomers, there are three types of pulsar. Note that the taxonomy has taken into account the power source of the pulsar. The first category is called rotation-powered pulsar, and as the name suggests it, the pulsar itself is powered by his rotational force. The second category is called accretion-powered pulsars. This category accounts for 80 percent of x-ray pulsars in our galaxy. The last category of pulsar is called magnestar. A magnestar is capable of emitting large quantities of electromagnetic power.
Image source:www.wikimedia.org
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