Schrodinger's Cat Is In Town II

by Dr. Abbie Stevens

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Schrodinger’s Cat is in Town II Dr. Abbie Stevens

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Image: R.N. Bailey, CC BY 4.0, WikiMedia 2 2 Life cycle of a star

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Neutron star • Leftover when a massive star (10-20x as big as our Sun) dies in a supernova WaLs+16 Image credit: ESA / HST / L. Calcada / NASA GSFC

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Neutron star • Leftover when a massive star (10-20x as big as our Sun) dies in a supernova • About 15 miles across, with 1.5x the mass of the Sun! Watts+16 Image credit: Google maps

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Neutron star • Leftover when a massive star (10-20x as big as our Sun) dies in a supernova • About 15 miles across, with 1.5x the mass of the Sun! • Their average density is equal to the density of an atomic nucleus! • VERY strong gravity: acceleration at surface is 100,000,000,000x stronger than on Earth Watts+16 Image credit: JBO/John Rowe Animation

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Neutron star Photo credit: F.E.Austin • Le^over when a massive star (10-20x as big as our Sun) dies in a supernova • About 15 miles across, with 1.5x the mass of the Sun! • Their average density is equal to the density of an atomic nucleus! • VERY strong gravity: accelera_on at surface is 100,000,000,000x stronger than on Earth • Has a magne_c ﬁeld 1 billion – 1 quadrillion _mes stronger than Earth’s

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PULSAR • A neutron star with a very strong magne_c ﬁeld Watts+16 Image credit: Mysid/R. Smits Magnetic field lines (invisible!)

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PULSAR • A neutron star with a very strong magnetic field • Shines bright beams of light out of its north and south magnetic poles Watts+16 Video credit: NASA

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Fancy PULSAR Some types of pulsars might have a twisted magnetic field structure, so they might have multiple poles in different shapes and locations! Watts+16 Video credit: NASA

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PULSAR • A neutron star with a very strong magne_c ﬁeld • Shines bright beams of light out of its north and south magne_c poles • Beams of light + spinning = pulses (like a lighthouse) Watts+16 Kramer gif Image credit: M. Kramer; H.Craft/P.Saville

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Studying pulsars in space Image credit: NASA NICER: Neutron star Interior Composition ExploreR

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Studying pulsars in space Video credit: NASA

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Supernova remnants • Gas from outer layers of exploding star heating up as it hits ambient space dust Watts+16 Image credit: NASA/CXC/SAO

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Supernova remnants • Gas from outer layers of exploding star hea_ng up as it hits ambient space dust Watts+16 Image credit: NASA/CXC/RIKEN & GSFC/T. Sato+ & DSS Image credit: NASA/CXC/SAO

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Supernova remnants • Gas from outer layers of exploding star heating up as it hits ambient space dust Watts+16 Image credit: NASA/ESA/HST

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Pulsar wind nebulae • Energetic particles from the pulsar collide with the ambient space dust Image credit: NASA/CXC/SAO/F.Seward & ESA/ASU/J.Hester & A.Loll; & JPL-Caltech/UMinn./R.Gehrz

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Pulsar wind nebulae • Energetic particles from the pulsar collide with the ambient space dust Image credit: NASA/ESA/STScI/F.Summers+; CXC/SAO/N.Wolk+ & Caltech/IPAC/R.Hurt

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Pulsar wind nebulae • Energetic particles from the pulsar collide with the ambient space dust Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/McGill

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What you’re doing! Watts+16 Image credits: N. Gentry;

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• Chandra X-ray Observatory: chandra.harvard.edu/photo/ • NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Media Studios: gms.gsfc.nasa.gov/ • Scientific papers: • Watts et al. 2016, RevModPhys 88, 021001 • Arzoumanian & Gendreau 2019 on ApJL Focus issue Further resources