PHYS 1000 Lecture Notes - Lecture 13: Type Ii Supernova, Crab Nebula, Geminga
12 Feb 2018
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Document Summary
After a type i supernova, little or nothing remains of the original star. After a type ii supernova, part of the core may survive. It is very dense and is called a neutron star. Neutron stars, although they have 1-3 solar masses, are so dense that they are very small. It emitted extraordinary regular pulses; nothing like it had ever been seen before. After some initial confusion, it was realized that this was a neutron star, spinning very rapidly. Charged particles escape at the poles, generating radiation. If the rotation axis is not the same as the magnetic axis, the two beams will sweep out circular paths. If earth lies in one of those paths, we will see the star blinking on and off. Pulsars radiate their energy away quite rapidly; the radiation weakens and stops in a few tens of millions of years, making the neutron star virtually undetectable.
