The unique laboratory so far is located about 2,400 light-years away in the constellation Puppis, the aft deck: there, two neutron stars orbit each other in just 147 minutes. It also rotates around itself, and only one neutron star takes 44 milliseconds to rotate on its axis. His companion is a little more comfortable with 2.8 seconds. Researchers on Earth have noticed something like this because both neutron stars act as pulsars that emit radio waves toward Earth. With the help of radio signals from this double pulsar called PSR J0737-3039, an international team was able to thoroughly verify Albert Einstein’s general theory of relativity. Your search results Put it in the “Physical Review X” magazine. Before.
The short summary is: Einstein is right again. Unfortunately.
Double pulsar PSR J0737-3039 as a test platform for Einstein’s general theory of relativity
For more than 16 years, Michael Kramer’s team at the Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy in Bonn has been examining the double-blind pulsar PSR J0737-3039, discovered in 2003, with seven radio telescopes distributed around the world. Scientists appreciate binary systems, which consist of at least one pulsar, because of their extreme properties. Because neutron stars may have a slightly greater mass than the Sun, but are only about 20 kilometers in diameter they are very small. Therefore the effects of the theory of relativity must be noticeable in them, which cannot be produced by earthly means.
© Michael Kramer/Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy (MPIfR) (excerpt)
Unique Laboratory of Double Pulsar PSR J0737-3039 | The double pulsar PSR J0737-3039 is quite unique to date: both neutron stars in the double system can be detected as pulsars on Earth. In addition, astronomers are lucky with geometry, because they look almost exactly from the side of the system: the inclination of its orbital plane relative to us is less than one degree. Finally, about 2,400 light-years away, the system is relatively close, and therefore extremely bright. These three factors allow researchers on Earth to accurately test many of the predictions of general relativity.
According to the prediction of general relativity, such a dual system should emit gravitational waves, for example. Since nothing is free in the universe, the system loses energy as a result, as a result of which the two neutron stars are getting closer and closer – until they eventually merge. The team has now demonstrated this approach, and thus indirectly also gravitational waves: “Every year, neutron stars need 39 microseconds less to rotate,” says Paulo Freire of the Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy. “This means that neutron stars will fuse with each other in about 86 million years.” Such a measurement on the Hulse-Taylor pulsar was already worthy of the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1993. But the current measurements are 25 times more accurate—mainly because the team succeeded in estimating the distance from PSR J0737-3039 more accurately than was possible with Nobel laureate Hulse-Taylor pulsar.
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