Pulsars Emit Gamma-rays from Equator

  • Released Friday, January 9, 2009
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A pulsar is a rapidly spinning and highly magnetized neutron star, the crushed core left behind when a massive sun explodes. Most were found through their pulses at radio wavelengths, which are thought to be caused by narrow, lighthouse-like beams emanating from the star's magnetic poles.

When it comes to gamma-rays, pulsars are no longer lighthouses. A new class of gamma-ray-only pulsars shows that the gamma rays must form in a broader region than the lighthouse-like radio beam. Astronomers now believe the pulsed gamma rays arise far above the neutron star.

The pulsar's radio beams (green) never intersect Earth, but its pulsed gamma rays (magenta) do.

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NASA/Fermi/Cruz deWilde

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This page was originally published on Friday, January 9, 2009.
This page was last updated on Wednesday, May 3, 2023 at 1:54 PM EDT.