本帖最后由 Stella 于 2013-9-1 09:24 编辑
Complex searches for cosmic lighthouses
Pulsars are the remnants from explosions of massive stars. They are strongly magnetized and extremely dense neutron stars. They rapidly rotate and emit a beam of radio waves along their magnetic field axis – similar to the spotlight of a lighthouse. If the radio wave beam points towards Earth, the pulsar can be observed.
搜索宇宙灯塔的复杂性
脉冲星是大质量恒星引力坍塌后的产物。他们是拥有极强磁场与极高密度的中子星。脉冲星具有极短的自转周期并沿着磁轴方向发射出无线电频谱。因此被形象的称为宇宙灯塔。如果该无线电频谱指向地球方向,该脉冲星就有机会被发现。
Large and sensitive radio telescopes are required to discover the weak signals from new pulsars. Knispel and his colleagues analysed data from the Parkes Multi-beam Pulsar Survey, conducted from 1997 to 2001, with the 64-meter antenna of CSIRO's Parkes radio telescope in southeast Australia. “The search for new radio pulsars is very computer intensive. To determine the a priori unknown characteristics of the pulsar, e.g., its distance or its rotation period, we have to very finely comb through wide parameter ranges,” says Knispel.
大口径高灵敏度的射电望远镜对于搜索微弱的脉冲星信号而言是必需的。Knispel与他的同事分析了自1997年至2001年期间由位于澳大利亚东南部的64米口径帕克斯射电望远镜所生成的多波束脉冲探测资料。“搜索新的射电脉冲星是一项计算密集型工作。为了确定这些潜在脉冲星的星体参数,如距离或自转周期,我们需要极其仔细的梳理广阔的参数值域。”
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