Clocks in the sky : the story of pulsars / Geoff McNamara.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

McNamara, Geoff.

Series:

Springer-Praxis books in popular astronomy.

Springer-Praxis books in popular astronomy

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Pulsars.

Radiation sources.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (200 p.)

Edition:

1st ed. 2008.

Place of Publication:

Berlin ; New York : Springer ; Chichester, UK : Published in association with Praxis, c2008.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Pulsars are rapidly spinning neutron stars, the collapsed cores of once massive stars that ended their lives as supernova explosions. In this book, Geoff McNamara explores the history, subsequent discovery and contemporary research into pulsar astronomy. The story of pulsars is brought right up to date with the announcement in 2006 of a new breed of pulsar, Rotating Radio Transients (RRATs), which emit short bursts of radio signals separated by long pauses. These may outnumber conventional radio pulsars by a ratio of four to one. Geoff McNamara ends by pointing out that, despite the enormous success of pulsar research in the second half of the twentieth century, the real discoveries are yet to be made including, perhaps, the detection of the hypothetical pulsar black hole binary system by the proposed Square Kilometre Array - the largest single radio telescope in the world.

Contents:

‘Life & Death Among The Stars’

‘1932’

‘A New Window’

’scruff’

‘What makes pulsars tick?’

‘The Crab’

‘Optical Pulsars’

‘The Searchers’

‘Two by Two’

‘Faster’

‘Globular Pulsars’

‘Pulsar Planets’

‘Magnetars’

’seeing Double’

‘Of Multibeams and RRATs’

‘The Future’.

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9786612235641

9781282235649

1282235648

9780387765624

038776562X

OCLC:

370598939