How do scientists find planets around pulsars?
Quick Answer
They track tiny irregularities in the timing of a pulsar’s pulses. If the pulsar wobbles because of orbiting planets, the arrival times shift in a detectable pattern.
The Full Story
Pulsars emit incredibly regular radio pulses, making them natural cosmic clocks. If a planet orbits the pulsar, the pulsar moves slightly around the system’s center of mass, causing the pulse arrival times to speed up and slow down in a predictable way. This method led to the first confirmed exoplanets ever discovered, around pulsar PSR B1257+12 in 1992 by Aleksander Wolszczan and Dale Frail. Those planets were unexpected because pulsars are the remnants of supernova explosions. Pulsar timing remains one of the most sensitive planet-detection techniques, though such systems are rare.
Key Facts
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