Monday, April 2, 2012

Using Pulsars For Spacecraft Navigation

The earth's tilt and the solar ecliptic plane don't have anything to do with our ability to view pulsars in/near the galactic plane. What would affect it is the solar system's distance from the galactic plane, and by galactic standards, that's pretty small.

What is relevant is the axis of rotation of the pulsar, the angular height of it's beam, it's distance from us, and it's distance from the galactic plane (and any intervening matter than might obscure it). Again, what's probable is that most of the ones we see have an axis of rotation approximately perpendicular to the galactic plane, such that their beam is "approximately in the galactic plane", giving visibility to that pulsar from most stars near the galactic plane. The larger the angular height of the beam, and the more distant the pulsar, the farther outside a perfect "perpendicular line of sight" the pulsar will be visible.

foo fighters nikki minaj grammys album of the year nicki minaj grammy red carpet grammy award winners

No comments:

Post a Comment

Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.