The recent discovery of the brightest pulsar ever found in the entire universe, PSR J0523-7125, outside of our galaxy has been causing a buzz in the astronomical world. This new discovery is already breaking records, and it was found in the body of the Large Magellanic Cloud. The pulsar is rotating at the rate of three times per second and happens to be our galactic neighbor, approximately 160,000 light-years away from Earth.
Pulsars are a special type of neutron star, which is a super dense star borne out of the death of a giant star. Neutron stars form after a supernova event when the core of a large star collapses in on itself, forming a super-dense remnant star. These new objects are some of the densest objects that we have found in our universe apart from black holes. Neutron stars are so dense that just a teaspoon of their material would weigh as much as 4 billion tons.
The discovery of PSR J0523-7125 was challenging for astronomers because it appeared just as a bright, distant galaxy and was thought to be one. Recently, astronomers realized that this distant galaxy was really the pulsating corpse of a long-dead star. They picked up a uniquely wide beam emitting out of this object, which could only be detected by looking for a specific kind of light – polarized light. With the help of new technology, they were able to finally pick up on this unique signal.
The researchers worked with CSIRO’s Australia Telescope National Facility ASCAP to detect the radio waves emitted by this pulsar. What they found is that the radio waves that pulsars emit are different from nearly all other sources of cosmic light. The waves the pulsars emit from their poles can be circularly polarized, which refers to their rotation in a circular motion as they move forward through space.
Now that researchers have been able to confirm that this object is a pulsar, they can begin to study it more in-depth and see what can be learned from it. Finding this unique pulsar was only the first step in understanding how and why it is there. Scientists are now hoping to refine the technique of detecting polarized light traveling through the cosmos to lead to additional discoveries of pulsars beyond the Milky Way.
In conclusion, the recent discovery of PSR J0523-7125, the brightest pulsar ever found, is a significant breakthrough in the field of astronomy. Its discovery outside of our galaxy, in the Large Magellanic Cloud, is already breaking records and is causing a buzz in the astronomical world. This discovery opens new avenues for understanding the universe and finding more pulsars beyond the Milky Way.
