Neutron Stars and Black Holes
After a supernova detonation, what remains is one of two types of exotic objects, neutron stars and black holes.
Neutron stars were discovered over thirty years ago by Jocelyn Bell. Here, she describes some of the characteristics of these objects. Actually, the first neutron star was first identified in the Crab Nebula because of its regular pulses of radio energy. This behavior was somewhat unexpected, and the radio source was first thought to be artificial. One of the first pulsars studied was the Vela pulsar. The constellation of Vela is in the southern sky, so many of you northern hemisphere types have probably never heard of it. If you have a minute or two to download a sound file, try this recording of the Vela pulsar.
Not all pulsars emit at radio frequencies. We now have evidence of X-Ray pulsars, which are made to spin faster and faster by accreting material from a companion star.
Black Holes are still elusive objects. The best candidate for a possible black hole is an object called Cygnus X-1, since Cygnus X-1 is a strong source of x-rays. The physics of black holes tends to seem a little unbelievable. Light does not travel in a straight line, in fact, it gets trapped in a black hole. Time is affected near a black hole.
We have given names to the structure of a black hole. Here are some of their characteristics.
Early in the last century, Albert Einstein put forth his theory of General Relativity, which describes how matter affects space. One of the consequences of the imense gravitational field near a black hole, is that the predictions of general relativity become easy to observe. Is there evidence that Relativity is correct in its predictions?
Let's take a trip to a black hole!
Here are the terms for this chapter
Designed and maintained by
.
Updated April 22, 2009