Scientists at Kobe University in Japan have made history by successfully capturing the most comprehensive photograph of a pulsar—the Vela pulsar, to be exact. Similar to a lighthouse, pulsars are a kind of neutron star that release gamma radiation. By using a novel technique that entailed piling layers of photographic film on top of one another and sending them into the sky on a balloon, the researchers were able to accomplish this remarkable accomplishment.
The scientists calculated the quantity of particles in the gamma radiation released by the far-off star by examining the data gathered from the stacked layers. Because of the way that this type of intense radiation interacts with matter differently from visible light, it is difficult to investigate. The researchers likened the process to using a straw to poke a hole in a stack of pancakes, and the stacked film layers also yielded useful information regarding the direction in which the particles were traveling.
The final photo, which was released in The Astrophysical Journal, provides an incredibly detailed view of the Vela pulsar. This 12-mile-wide neutron star, which is roughly 1,000 light-years away from Earth, rotates at a startling 11 times every second. According to lead researcher Aoki Shigeki, the group was able to obtain trillions of precisely measured pulsar traces, down to 1/10,000 millimeters. The resolution of the image was more than 40 times higher than that of traditional gamma-ray telescopes thanks to the combination of time and attitude monitoring data.
Shigeki expressed hope that fresh developments in the study of these far-off cosmic occurrences will be made possible by their experimental methodology. He stressed the potential benefits that scientific balloon-borne experiments could have for astrophysics in a number of areas, most notably in broadening the scope of gamma-ray telescopy to include "multi-messenger astronomy," which calls for simultaneous measurements of the same event using several methods. This ground-breaking discovery opens up new research directions for scientists and offers insightful information about the composition and behavior of neutron stars.
