Right Again, Einstein! Wobbling Pulsar Confirms General Relativity

[Judi Lynn]

By Tim Childers - Live Science Contributor 14 hours ago Space

A pulsar 25,000 light-years away is wobbling in a weird way. But Einstein's theory of general relativity predicted it more than a century ago.



The Crab Nebula is a remnant of a supernova, where a pulsar now resides at the center. The Crab Pulsar rotates 30 times each second.(Image: © NASA, ESA, J. Hester, A. Loll (ASU))


Einstein's theory of general relativity has been confirmed once again, this time in the wobbling of a pulsar 25,000 light-years from Earth. Over the span of 14 years, astronomers observed the spinning neutron star PSR J1906+0746.

Their goal? To study the wobble, or precession, of two pulsars as they orbit each other, a rare phenomenon predicted by general relativity.

The astronomers, led by Gregory Desvignes from the Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy in Bonn, Germany, published their results in the Sept. 6 issue of the journal Science. Their findings could help estimate the number of these so-called binary pulsars in our galaxy and the rate of neutron star mergers, which might produce gravitational waves (also predicted by relativity) that can be observed on Earth.

Einstein's theory of general relativity has been confirmed once again, this time in the wobbling of a pulsar 25,000 light-years from Earth. Over the span of 14 years, astronomers observed the spinning neutron star PSR J1906+0746.

Their goal? To study the wobble, or precession, of two pulsars as they orbit each other, a rare phenomenon predicted by general relativity.

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https://www.livescience.com/wobbling-pulsar-confirms-einstein.html

[tblue37]

1. K&R and thanks. nt