Clocking Dead Stars with Radio Telescopes: Timing 4 Pulsars from GBNCC Survey
Mentor 1
David Kaplan
Mentor 2
Joe Swiggum
Location
Union Wisconsin Room
Start Date
27-4-2018 1:00 PM
Description
Undergraduate students participating in course-based research had the opportunity to learn about radio telescopes and pulsars (a type of neutron star), with pairs of students ultimately "adopting" a pulsar to determine a full solution that describes the pulsar's position, spin-properties, age, and expected evolution. The discovery and timing observations were taken using the 100-m Robert C. Byrd Green Bank telescope. These students were the first to learn the properties of these unique stars, which involved multiple steps of data processing and analysis. One of the pulsars, PSR J0038-2501, is slowing down at a slower rate than expected, which suggests that it has a low magnetic field and may have had an unusual evolutionary path. The students are writing a paper based on the results to be published in a journal.
Clocking Dead Stars with Radio Telescopes: Timing 4 Pulsars from GBNCC Survey
Union Wisconsin Room
Undergraduate students participating in course-based research had the opportunity to learn about radio telescopes and pulsars (a type of neutron star), with pairs of students ultimately "adopting" a pulsar to determine a full solution that describes the pulsar's position, spin-properties, age, and expected evolution. The discovery and timing observations were taken using the 100-m Robert C. Byrd Green Bank telescope. These students were the first to learn the properties of these unique stars, which involved multiple steps of data processing and analysis. One of the pulsars, PSR J0038-2501, is slowing down at a slower rate than expected, which suggests that it has a low magnetic field and may have had an unusual evolutionary path. The students are writing a paper based on the results to be published in a journal.
