Unveiling the friend of a pulsar
What kind of star is orbiting around a millisecond pulsar and where did it come from?
An Astronomical (Anti-)Glitch
The authors of this article observe a sudden slowing in the rotation rate of a known magnetar. Although hundreds of glitches (a sudden increase in rotation rate) have been observed in radio pulsars and magnetars, this is the first direct evidence for an anti-glitch.
A Universal Clock Skewed by … Asteroids?
We’ve detected planets around pulsars before, but this pulsar has an even stranger signal. Could it be due to an asteroid belt similar to the one in our solar system orbiting it?
UR #5: Isolated Neutron Stars and Galaxy Evolution
This month’s undergrad research post is all about X-rays. Read on to learn more about studying the X-ray counterpart to a radio pulsar, and examining the evolution of galaxies using X-ray emission.
A Pulsar Alone
The closest known isolated radio pulsar also has one of the slowest rotation rates — far below what should be observable for a pulsar. This paper discusses X-ray and optical observations of this puzzling object.
The Polarization of Light, Faraday Rotation, and Stokes Parameters
Polarimetry is one of the handful of fundamental methods used to study incoming radiation and can provide substantial clues to the nature of the source. Polarimetry is used to extract information such as the strength of magnetic fields in the interstellar medium (ISM), provide evidence for inflation by observations of the CMB polarization, and motivate a unified model for active galactic nuclei (AGN).