Curvature of space-time led to the disappearance of a binary star – The Jewish Times

Posted 13.01.2015 01:27

PSR J1906 + 0746 is a binary pulsar discovered in 2004 in the constellation Aquila. The force of attraction between the two pulsars was so great that it gave rise to gravitational waves and deformed space, causing tremors pulsar rotates around the orbit of another four hours. Tracking the movement of the pulsar for almost ten years since 2005, astronomers had determined its mass, gravitational perturbation calculated and determined the rotation period, amounting to seven times per second, for which he directed two of its radio beam into outer space to Earth in the form of regular pulses. In 2014 it was discovered that radio pulsar J1906 began to go around the land that can be attributed to the geodetic precession, lies in the fact that he left a dent in space-time generated by its own orbit.

The observed during 10 years of double star named J1906 suddenly disappeared from the sight of the world’s scientists. This is reported by the Netherlands Institute for Radio Astronomy workers and the University of Amsterdam. The reason for these things, according to astronomers, is the curvature of space-time. So now you can not see the pulsar, even with the most powerful technology. Forecasts for the future are disappointing because again see the object, scientists will be able to in about 160 years, and it is 2157.

The pulsar J1906 was discovered in 2004 by researchers Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico. This is – a tiny, but very dense neutron star is relatively recent, about 100 thousand years ago in the explosion. The space object is located at a distance of 25,000 light-years from Earth in the star cluster Terzian 5. Weight pulsar is about the same as that of the Sun, with a diameter of 10-20 kilometers.

At the pulsar J1906 was discovered companion star. It is interesting that the objects do turn around each other in just 4:00. With the help of observations community of astrophysicists were able to measure the mass of the pulsar J1906, which is very difficult task. Also, the scientists were able to measure the gravitational interaction between the 2 compact stars.
Scientists believe fortunate that they were able to observe the pulsar J1906, which came in sight of astronomers as suddenly as disappeared.

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