Word: supernova
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...more experienced astronomers who were certain that the strange objects would be too small and distant to be seen through terrestrial telescopes. Undaunted, they pointed the 36-in. telescope at Arizona's Steward Observatory toward a small star in the Crab nebula, the glowing, cloudlike remnant of a supernova (stellar explosion) that was first witnessed from earth...
...first inkling that pulsars might not be reliable timepieces came after Cornell University astronomers at Arecibo, Puerto Rico, trained their 1,000-ft. radio telescope on a newly discovered pulsar in the Crab Nebula, the glowing remnant of a supernova-or stellar explosion-that was seen from earth in A.D. 1054. Unlike most other pulsars, which have relatively low repetition rates (between one and four per second), the new find was ticking about 30 times per second. Carefully measuring the pulse rate in October and then again in November, the astronomers found that it was slowing down by about...
According to theory, neutron stars are formed during the cataclysmic processes that occur in a supernova. They consist entirely of neutrons densely packed into dim spheres that are about ten miles in diameter and weigh more than 10 billion lbs. per cubic inch. Astrophysicist Gold believes that a neutron star has an in credibly intense magnetic field that traps ionized gases expelled from the supernova. As the star and its magnetic field spin, the outmost of the trapped gases are whirled at almost the speed of light until they break away, producing an intense beam of radio waves-the regularly...
...glowing remnants of a supernova, or exploding star, observed by the Chinese...
Some gaseous remains survive long after. In A.D. 1054, Chinese astrologers recorded a brilliant "guest star" supernova that suddenly exploded one night in the constellation Taurus. Located near the tip of the left horn, the star remained visible even during bright daylight. This same supernova's remains can be seen today as the Crab nebula, a diffuse, glowing gas cloud 3,500 light years away, which continues to expand at 800 miles per second...