Towards the center of our Milky Way Galaxy, in the constellation Sagittarius, astronomers have discovered 10 monstrous neutron stars. These particular stars, called pulsars, reside together in globular cluster Terzan 5, a crowded home for hundreds of thousands of different types of stars. In one of the most jam-packed places in our Milky Way, many pulsars in Terzan 5 have evolved into bizarre and eccentric forms.
A team of astronomers has found a new tool to discover pulsars, rapidly rotating neutron stars that blast out pulses of radiation at regular intervals ranging from seconds to milliseconds. Named the VLA Low-band Ionosphere and Transient Experiment (VLITE), the tool was made possible by a collaboration between the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory and the National Radio Astronomy Observatory.
Astronomers using the National Science Foundation’s Green Bank Telescope targeted the Smith Cloud for their observations, however, the Milky Way’s inner galaxy obscured their view. While these scientists didn’t find what they were originally looking for, they did observe something new about this part of our home galaxy. This inner part of the Milky Way appears to be half the size of the outer part!
The National Science Foundation’s National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO) and Green Bank Observatory (GBO) will present at the 244th meeting of the American Astronomical Society in Madison, Wisconsin, from June 9-13.