Physicist solves mystery of Crab Nebula’s unique ‘zebra’ pattern

Posted in Real Review Letters | Estimated reading time: 6 minutes

Located 6,000 light-years from Earth, the Crab Nebula contains a unique pulsar that emits radio waves in an inexplicable zebra-striped pattern. This pattern has puzzled astronomers ever since it was discovered in 2007.

Physicist Mikhail Medvedev used the principles of wave optics to show that these stripes are likely to form when radio waves bend around a pulsar and interact with the surrounding plasma – a cloud of charged particles created by the star’s powerful magnetic field. I showed it.

“If you have a screen and electromagnetic waves pass through it, the waves don’t propagate straight away,” explains Medvedev. “Waves curl around obstacles and interfere with each other, creating a series of bright and faint patterns due to constructive and destructive interference.”

The plasma surrounding the pulsar affects this pattern in a unique way. “Low frequencies reflect at larger radii and cast larger shadows, while higher frequencies produce smaller shadows, resulting in different pattern spacing,” says Medvedev.

This discovery opens up new possibilities in pulsar research. “By analyzing the patterns, we can infer the density and distribution of plasma within the magnetosphere, which essentially allows us to create images or perform tomography of the magnetosphere of a neutron star,” says Medvedev.

vocabulary

pulsar

It is a rapidly rotating neutron star that emits a beam of electromagnetic radiation like a space lighthouse.

plasma

A state of matter consisting of charged particles (electrons and positrons) created by a strong magnetic field.

magnetosphere

The area around a celestial body where magnetic fields dominate the surrounding space.

quiz