In addition, pulsars also emit X-rays and high-energy gamma rays. Usually, these are deadly if a human is exposed to them. Nevertheless, it would be interesting to see what would happen to other animals or things from everyday life if they were exposed to the radiation. Still more interesting than that would be to test a pulsar’s effects on another pulsar, and also, if two pulsars circling each other were found. Such a binary system has been discovered, indeed many binary systems have been found since the early 1970’s when they were initially discovered. But pulsars are not unique in being in binary systems; many other stars have been detected in pairs, triplets and even complicated systems with several stars. Unfortunately, the other half of the dream, to test the effects of one pulsar on another, has not been realized yet. One contribution to the fact is that relatively few pulsars have been found in a binary system. This might be because very few pairs can survive the powerful blast of a supernova, which may well blow away the smaller partner in the system. Another is that because of the gyrating magnetic fields, one of the pair might become unstable and therefore, might’ve been thrown like a slingshot away from its partner.

Another dream, which scientists have tried to achieve way back when the telescope was invented, was to discover extraterrestrial life existing on other planets, either in our solar system, or in some distant one hundreds of light-years away. Again, they realized this. A couple of years ago, two astronomers named Geoffrey Marcy and Paul Butler, looking for planets found what they were looking for. The new planets, together with their parent star, were dubbed the 55 Cancri Solar System.

Their discovery was followed by many more, but one of the most surprising has been the finding of pulsar planets. Three planets were detected around an unnamed pulsar with a catalog number of PSR1257 + 12. The extremely small acceleration and deceleration of the pulses over periods of time raised the suspicion of planets orbiting around it. Moreover, the pattern was complex, but clearly distinguishable, suggesting that not just one planet was revolving around PSR1257 + 12, but several. This pulsar is more than 1300 light-years away and finding planets 1300 light-years away seems highly impossible; but the exceeding accuracy of the pulses makes such a discrepancy detectable. In fact, the precision of a pulsar pulse rivals that of an atomic clock.

The inner two planets orbit the pulsar every 67 and 98 days, and are approximately the same distance from the pulsar as Mercury and Venus are from the Sun. These two are also much denser the Earth: 3.4 and 2.8 the earth’s mass. The third planet, about the size and mass of our Moon, orbits the pulsar at roughly the Earth’s distance from the Sun. But conditions on these planets are much different than those in our solar system. Intense radiation fries the surfaces of pulsar planets. Huge volcanoes spew lava, distributing them over the whole area. They must be molten slag, with no possibility of water or life, as we know it. Even the most durable of objects on earth would melt in such an environment. Every so often, a plume of melted rock stream from the planets. They would seem like comets, and not in the least resembling a planet.

Of course, it is impossible to see planets with optical telescopes or try to detect them with radio telescopes. The only possible way to find one is to look at its affects on the star that it’s orbiting. Thus, the existence of the pulsar planets is not conclusive. On the other hand, all of science is inconclusive; but it does not mean that all of science is wrong in one way or another.

As having come to realize this, the existence of pulsars is also inconclusive, but again, it does not mean that pulsars simply do not exist. Ideas continuously change in science so this report might not be considered up-to-date a decade from now. Anyway, I’ll just have to wait for the next generation of hypotheses to come to write another report!

       

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