https://www.britannica.com/science/pulsar
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnetar#Description
They are both forms of neutron stars, which average around 20km but are the densest objects known to man. Fun fact, one sugar cube of their material would weigh about as much as a mountain (https://imagine.gsfc.nasa.gov/science/objects/neutron_stars1...).
Well, not quite, because that analogy misses ten orders of magnitude of density difference. That just hurts my brain.
Magnetars are a whole other level of eldritch madness. The energy density of their magnetic fields is ten thousand times the density of lead.
Let that sink in for a minute.
The vacuum around a magnetar contains so much energy in the magnetic field alone that thanks to the E=mc² conversion ratio between energy and mass it has a "mass density" that is the direct equivalent to every single atomic bomb on the planet blowing up all at once and the released energy of all of that getting packed into a cubic centimeter.
Pulsar's pulse comes from their spin contorting the magnetic field lines. When they slow down, they lose energy, and at some point they don't have enough to create XRays.
My guess, nothing is perfect, the rotation pole does not align exactly with the magnetic pole.
A second followup question, do stars tend to be coaxially aligned with their galaxy? it it possible to tell which way a star or pulsar is rotating?
Yes but this is a dynamic process that produces more correlated stars as the galaxy ages.
Astronomers routinely measure such parameters using models to provide confidence bounds for their estimates.
Or, it could be something that flares up every 44 minutes, and is emitted in all directions at once. We really don't know.
randomname4325•5h ago
braiamp•5h ago
delichon•3h ago
ataru•4h ago
NewJazz•4h ago
unsnap_biceps•4h ago
sieste•4h ago
thrill•4h ago
hkt•4h ago
lostmsu•4h ago
fuzztester•3h ago
the concept of self respect itself may be alien to "aliens".
it's a human construct / concept.
also, stop calling them aliens. it is disrespectful.
(otherwise they might zap us with their thought cannon, compared to which light sabers are like toothpicks.)
they have as much right to be in this universe as we have. the term "alien" is a human and sci-fi construct. and sci-fi is, well, fi(ction).
call them extra terrestrial beings, or just other beings.
we need to realise that other beings can have other sets of values than we do, or even none. heck, they may not even have the concept of values. and there is nothing wrong with that.
i can go on, but I'll stop here. my other being friends are calling me for a get together.
100721•3h ago
fuzztester•1h ago