From the multiwavelength astrophysical observations of Pulsars, information about its global structure (Mass or Radius) can be obtained
If pulsars are in binary with another pulsar, or another compact object, they show effects due to its strong gravity beyond simple Kepler's laws
From these effects, masses of pulsars in binary can be determined very accurately
Radius measurements depend on the detection of thermal emission from the surface of the star, & suffer from inaccuracies due to unknown factors like distance
A recent breakthrough came with the launch of the NICER mission. This can measure pulsar radii to 5% accuracies ! 👏🤓
From the precession (wobble) of pulsars, one can also determine its rotational inertia, which in turn depends on its mass & radius
Identifying spectral lines & the effect of strong gravity on them can also reveal the compactness of the pulsar, which is the ratio of its mass & radius
But why are we bothered about #Pulsar mass & radius? 🧐 I will explain in the next post how they reveal all about its interior composition!
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PEOPLE OF SPACE! I’m super excited to be hosting this week! We’ll be covering a bunch of topics that are near and dear to me including #space (obviously), astronomy, supernovae, radio astronomy, science communication, and MORE
🧵 #science#scicomm#spacetwitter#intro#Thread
But who is this random dude yelling at us about space?
Well the short version is that I’m a physicist who finished high school with every intention of becoming a lawyer - pictured is 19yo me not caring about science #accidentalscientist#accidentalphysicist#throwback#SPACE
The mission patch was based on a design from well known Italian fashion designer, Emilio Pucci. The design has three stylized birds flying over the Hadley-Appenine landing site with the crew names on the lower part of the outer border.
In an early version of an Easter egg, the crew snuck a Roman numeral XV into the crater shadows. According to a story I heard from one of Al Worden's @ExploreSpaceKSC presentations, NASA discouraged Roman numerals on the Apollo patches, thus the hidden nature.
Before his passing last year, @WordenAlfred was a regular astronaut host at @ExploreSpaceKSC giving presentations guiding tours and being an affable ambassador of the Apollo program to a new audience.
On board were (left to right) Lunar Module Pilot Jim Irwin, Commander Dave Scott, and Command Module Pilot Al Worden
The landing site was Hadley-Appenine, on the edge of Mare Imbrium. It was bordered by Hadley Rille, a valley-like geological structure and the Montes Apenninus, or Appenine Mountains. The Palus Putredinus was a lava field that filled the area.
Today I’ll be working on some research for the big Mars exhibition! As I said yesterday, I’m working on researching how people have been imaging the Red Planet throughout history.
Today we have orbiters circling Mars and rovers that take pictures of the surface. But the history of imaging Mars stretches back centuries, from depicting Mars in art to the canals people thought they saw on the planet.
What are some of your favourite images of Mars and why?
Going to talk about designing a temporary display today!
In Science Museum lingo, there are 2 kinds of displays:
🚀Exhibitions (temporary displays) - these can last up to a year
🚀Galleries (permanent displays)
Even a temporary display might take several years to prepare for, with overviews and detailed proposals.
Exotic solvents & life's building blocks are among the more speculative #astrobiology topics, but still important to study scientifically! Our own system contains places potentially able to host life unlike on Earth. Not just Titan!
All Earth life is carbon-based and needs water to survive. 💦
'Mildly' exotic life might share these traits, but use e.g. other information molecule (or differently coded DNA, even with different/more 'letters') or opposite chirality (left/right-handedness) of some compounds.
There are countless possibilities of different information molecules and their coding. Is Earth DNA and RNA a ', frozen accident', or does it have a phys/chem reason? And is all life chiral? In the same way, or is that another frozen accident? What about the amino acids we use?