China FAST radio telescope detects pulsar emitting dozens of ‘dwarf’ pulses

According to data collected by the China Five Hundred-metre Aperture Spherical Telescope (FAST) radio telescope, astronomers have discovered dozens of dwarf pulses emitted by a known pulsar. In a study published in the scientific journal Nature Astronomy, The scientists explain that they have found weak pulses that have never been detected before.

The pulsar is known as PSR B2111+46 and has been found to emit dozens of “weak, narrow pulses” that have never been observed before. According to a team of astronomers from the National Astronomical Observatory of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (NAOC), the cosmic object is very ancient.

The study explains that pulsars periodically emit radio signals, but some older pulsars tend to extinguish these emissions periodically; This phenomenon is called ‘pulse reset’. According to the study authors, It is interesting that dozens of weak and narrow pulses were detected during the “pause” time of the radio signals.

“The properties of such dwarf pulses will be difficult to measure with radio telescopes outside of FAST. The professor and author from the National Astronomical Observatories of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (NAOC) said, “And measurements of a new population of dwarf pulses show that the magnetic field structure for the pulsar’s radiation remains unchanged even when the radiation is nearly cut off. reveals,” said of the study, HAN Jinlin.

Dozens of Dwarf Pulsars

Usually, the radiation emitted by pulsars cannot be detected due to the cancellation of radio emissions, but astronomers have yet to discover the reason behind the absence of this radiation. According to another author of the study, Dr. CHEN XueData was collected from 175 pulses; The phenomenon has been named “dwarf pulse” because it is different from normal pulses.

The researchers explain in a statement that without a radio telescope like FAST, reading and measuring dwarf pulses would be difficult. So who knows, they hope to find more data from similar pulsars to answer some of the mysteries of these cosmic objects.

“In fact, fewer dwarf pulses have also been detected in some other pulsars. Detailed studies of a dwarf pulse population may reveal some of the mysteries of the unknown processing of the pulsar’s radiation and reveal the extreme state of plasma in the pulsar’s magnetosphere,” said YAN Yi, co-author of the study.

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