Good point. However...
A question from me now (I am now in Alex's mode
).
Instead of expected onion-shape [BTW, layers of light for millisecond pulsating are expected to be very thin (1 ms equals ~300km), objects that small are not observable from those distances],we should be able to see some sort of bright ring, where rotating beam is hitting the shell of previously ejected material from a progenitor star.
Would the bright rings observed at SN 1987A in LMC be a good explanation for this?
Quote:
Originally Posted by sjastro
There is a simple way of refuting this relaxation oscillator nonsense, observation.
A relaxation oscillator or blinking star is emitting spherical radiation (ie radiation is being emitted in all directions), in a pulsar the beam of radiation is rotating around a perpendicular axis.
If the object in the Crab Nebula is a blinking star the spherical radiation will reflect off the surrounding dust and form light echoes.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Light_echo
No such phenomena is observed!!!
Regards
Steven |
This is also a question/point for Alex: 300km = 1ms.
The size of millisecond relaxation oscillator can not be larger than 300km in diameter.
The discharge in any material starts at random place(s) and then it propagates from there with the speed lower than c.
The recovery is also random-chaotic process, it includes cooling (significant temperature drop, recombination...) and it takes much longer time than discharge.. (This is why UJT, SCR's, thyratrons, neon tubes and similar are such a lousy oscillators).
All this tells us a lot about sizes involved in the process.
I tried to put this bug in Alex's ear earlier. but he didn't react, so now I am more direct - millisecond pulsar simply MUST be a VERY compact object in astronomical terms, whatever it's nature may be.
Rotating neutron star with two beams is (again) much more plausible model, contrary to relaxation oscillator explanation which is just an interesting mind game played by bored (or frustrated) electronics engineers.