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back to article NASA spots 'gamma ray-only' pulsar

NASA's Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope (formerly known as GLAST) has spied the first "gamma ray-only" pulsar - a 10,000 year-old stellar remnant which uniquely doesn't appear to emit pulses at either radio, visible light or X-ray wavelengths in common with the 1,800 or so similar objects catalogued to date. An artist's …

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  1. Roger Greenwood

    Large Area Telescope

    Belonging to Fermi - that would be FLAT then ?

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  2. Anonymous Coward
    Alien

    Probably the result of....

    a Planet buster dropped in a sun. That would explain the asymmetric explosion

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  3. Peyton
    Paris Hilton

    I might be confused

    "This will increase by one second every 87,000 years, the boffins predict, since the beams it emits are powered by its rotation and gradually put the brakes on its energetic spinning."

    Should that be "this will decrease" ?

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  4. Alan Fisher

    it's....

    a Hulk making machine!

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  5. John H Woods Silver badge

    @Peyton

    I read it as the period of rotation increasing by 1 sec per 87,000 years, i.e. it takes ever longer to rotate, so its rotational speed is slowing down. So the frequency will get less as the period gets longer?

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  6. david wilson

    @Peyton

    >>"Should that be "this will decrease?"

    You *must* be having a Paris moment.

    As it slows down, the time period between pulses will increase.

    >> >>"The calculations show that the pulsar has a rotation period of 316.86 milliseconds. This will increase by one second every 87,000 years..."

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  7. Peyton
    Heart

    ahhh, thanks mucho

    You're right - I was reading it as just the rotation increasing, not the rotational *period* (hey it's Friday - I'm doing the best I can here ;)

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  8. Frank
    Thumb Up

    @Peyton re. ahhh, thanks...

    The fact that you asked the question proves that your brain is working, just needed a bit of tuning up :)

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  9. Graham Marsden

    @Probably the result of....

    ... not a Thermo-stellar Triggering Device?

    "Bomb number 20, you are out of the bomb bay again..."

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  10. Anonymous Coward
    IT Angle

    i have to ask

    well?

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  11. Anonymous Coward
    Joke

    I want a paris moment

    Never mind, I just had it.

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