1
00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:04,000
[Music throughout] NASA’s NICER X-ray telescope on the International

2
00:00:04,000 --> 00:00:08,000
Space Station has just shown that random outbursts from pulsars

3
00:00:08,000 --> 00:00:12,000
pack more of a punch than previously thought. Pulsars are

4
00:00:12,000 --> 00:00:16,000
rapidly spinning neutron stars, the crushed cores of exploded

5
00:00:16,000 --> 00:00:20,000
stars. One of the best-known pulsars lies at the heart of the 

6
00:00:20,000 --> 00:00:24,000
famous Crab Nebula, located about 

7
00:00:24,000 --> 00:00:28,000
6,500 light-years away. Light from the supernova that formed it reached

8
00:00:28,000 --> 00:00:32,000
Earth less than a thousand years ago, in the year 1054.

9
00:00:32,000 --> 00:00:36,000
The Crab pulsar spins 30 times a second and steadily

10
00:00:36,000 --> 00:00:40,000
blinks in radio, visible light, X-rays and gamma rays.

11
00:00:40,000 --> 00:00:44,000
But it also emits random, jumbo bursts called

12
00:00:44,000 --> 00:00:48,000
giant radio pulses that can be more than 10 times stronger than its regular

13
00:00:48,000 --> 00:00:52,000
signals. Now, thanks to NICER’s sensitivity, 

14
00:00:52,000 --> 00:00:56,000
astronomers have shown that each giant pulse comes with an increase in

15
00:00:56,000 --> 00:01:00,000
X-ray brightness as well. Observing the Crab simultaneously with

16
00:01:00,000 --> 00:01:04,000
NICER and radio telescopes in Japan, astronomers captured

17
00:01:04,000 --> 00:01:08,000
data over some 3.7 million rotations. They show

18
00:01:08,000 --> 00:01:12,000
a nearly 4% increase in X-ray emission with each giant

19
00:01:12,000 --> 00:01:16,000
pulse. This means the phenomena responsible for giant radio

20
00:01:16,000 --> 00:01:20,000
pulses produce 10 or more times the energy previously 

21
00:01:20,000 --> 00:01:24,000
estimated from radio and visible data alone. Astronomers

22
00:01:24,000 --> 00:01:28,000
think all these signals originate from particle interactions in the pulsar’s

23
00:01:28,000 --> 00:01:32,000
rapidly spinning magnetic field, but the details remain poorly known.

24
00:01:32,000 --> 00:01:36,000
Better understanding of giant pulses

25
00:01:36,000 --> 00:01:40,000
may help scientists figure out how pulsars like the Crab do what they do.

26
00:01:40,000 --> 00:01:44,000
It may also provide us with insight into a much more powerful

27
00:01:44,000 --> 00:01:48,000
phenomenon called Fast Radio Bursts, which are linked to spinning

28
00:01:48,000 --> 00:01:52,000
neutron stars in our galaxy, and others much farther away.

29
00:01:52,000 --> 00:01:58,272
[NASA]