Crab Nebula: Giant radio pulses and X-ray peaks detected

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The nebula is six light-years wide and is a growing cloud of debris created by a supernova explosion. (A light year is six trillion miles.)

The light from this supernova first reached Earth in July 1054 and was seen by astronomers in Japan and China.

When the star exploded, it formed a neutron star, the dense core of a star about the size of a city like Chicago. This became a pulsar, or rapidly spinning neutron star, now in the nebula.

This star orbits 30 times per second and is considered one of the brightest pulsars emitting light in X-rays and radio wavelengths visible in our sky. When these rays of light fly past Earth, scientists can catalog those pulses and determine if it is a pulsar.

Hubble shows the
The pulsar in the Crab Nebula could be hundreds of times more energetic than researchers previously thought, according to a study published last week in the journal Science.

It gives off bright millisecond pulses of radio waves, the so-called gigantic radio pulses, which are accompanied by X-ray spikes.

How the nebula’s discovery was made

This mosaic image of the Crab Nebula was taken by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope.

A global team of scientists made the discovery using data from NASA’s NICER telescope, or Neutron star Interior Composition Explorer, located on the International Space Station.

The NICER telescope was used to observe the Crab Nebula’s pulsar between August 2017 and August 2019. It was also observed using ground-based telescopes such as the 34-meter dish at the Kashima Space Technology Center in Japan and the 64-meter dish at the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency’s Usuda Deep Space Center. Kashima’s telescope was damaged beyond repair by a typhoon in 2019.

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“Of more than 2,800 pulsars cataloged, the Crab pulsar is one of the few that emits gigantic radio pulses, which occur sporadically and can be hundreds to thousands of times brighter than the regular pulses,” said Teruaki Enoto, author and team of the study. . leader at the RIKEN pioneering research cluster in Wako, Saitama prefecture, Japan, in a statement.

“After decades of observations, the Crab has only been shown to amplify its gigantic radio pulses with emissions from other parts of the spectrum.”

The team was able to analyze the largest amount of X-ray and radio data ever collected simultaneously with a pulsar, expanding the known range of energy by thousands.

The team has collectively recorded 3.7 million pulse rotations and 26,000 gigantic radio pulses from the pulsar.

Another mysterious radio burst in space repeats a pattern. This occurs every 157 days

Giant radio pulses happen within a millionth of a second and can be unpredictable – until they occur. Then they emit regular pulses.

NICER’s precision made it possible to record X-rays within 100 nanoseconds of detection.

Telescope can keep up

“NICER’s ability to detect bright X-ray sources is nearly four times greater than the combined brightness of both the pulsar and its nebula,” said Zaven Arzoumanian, deputy principal investigator and scientific leader for NICER at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. . , in a statement.

“These observations were largely unaffected by the pileup – where a detector counts two or more X-rays as a single event – and other issues that have complicated previous analyzes.”

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An analysis of the X-rays that occurred in conjunction with the giant radio pulses revealed X-ray peaks of about 4%, which is very similar to the 3% increase in visible light also associated with the pulses.

While that sounds like a small percentage difference, X-rays are millions of times more energetic than radio waves.

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Unlike the regular pulses delivered by the pulsar, these giant pulses are likely the result of a process that produces an emission spanning the electromagnetic spectrum, from radio wavelengths to X-rays, NASA said.

“We still do not understand how and where pulsars produce their complex and broad emission, and it is gratifying to have contributed one more piece to the multi-wavelength puzzle of these fascinating objects,” said Enoto.

Unlock a space mystery

Understanding more about these gigantic radio pulses could provide insight into mysterious fast radio bursts traveling millions and billions of light years to reach Earth.

Some scientists believe that the mechanics behind the origin of giant radio pulses from pulsars may also be the same as the origin of fast radio bursts. These bursts, known as FRBs, are also millisecond radio signals and some can even be traced back to their source and are known to repeat. But their origin is unknown.

These fast radio bursts, which take place outside of our galaxy, are also believed to be associated with pulsars.

“However, the relationship between the two is still controversial, and these findings, along with upcoming discoveries regarding fast radio bursts, will help us understand the relationship between these phenomena,” said Enoto.

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