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Politics : Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: TideGlider who wrote (775709)	3/19/2014 4:07:51 PM
From: combjelly	1 Recommendation Recommended By TideGlider Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1579403

Actually, they emit continually. But, due to the magnetic fields, their strongest emissions are at their magnetic poles. Which aren't necessarily aligned with their rotational poles. So they often sweep their peak emissions around and it looks like it is emitting bursts of light.

To: TideGlider who wrote (775709)	3/19/2014 4:15:58 PM
From: jlallen	1 Recommendation Recommended By TideGlider Respond to of 1579403

A pulsar ( portmanteau of pulsating star) is a highly magnetized, rotating neutron star that emits a beam of electromagnetic radiation. This radiation can only be observed when the beam of emission is pointing toward the Earth, much the way a lighthouse can only be seen when the light is pointed in the direction of an observer, and is responsible for the pulsed appearance of emission. Neutron stars are very dense, and have short, regular rotational periods. This produces a very precise interval between pulses that range from roughly milliseconds to seconds for an individual pulsar. The precise periods of pulsars makes them useful tools. Observations of a pulsar in a binary neutron star system were used to indirectly confirm the existence of gravitational radiation. The first extrasolar planets were discovered around a pulsar, PSR B1257+12. Certain types of pulsars rival atomic clocks in their accuracy in keeping time.