Physicists unravel mystery behind Crab Nebula’s unique ‘zebra’ pattern

Published in Physical Review Letters |Estimated reading time: 6 minutes

The Crab Nebula is located 6,000 light-years from Earth and contains a unique pulsar that emits unexplained streaks of radio waves. Since its discovery in 2007, this pattern has puzzled astronomers to this day.

Physicist Mikhail Medvedev used the principles of wave optics to explain how radio waves bend around pulsars and interact with the surrounding plasma, a cloud of charged particles produced by the star’s strong magnetic field. This showed that there is a high possibility that stripes will form.

“If electromagnetic waves pass through when there is a screen, the waves do not travel in a straight line,” Medvedev explains. “The waves bend around obstacles and interfere with each other, creating a series of bright and dim stripes through constructive and destructive interference.”

The plasma surrounding the pulsar affects this pattern in unique ways. “Low frequencies reflect at a larger radius and cast larger shadows, while higher frequencies create smaller shadows, resulting in a different spacing of the fringes,” Medvedev said.

This discovery opens new possibilities for pulsar research. “By analyzing the fringes, we can estimate the density and distribution of the plasma in the magnetosphere, which basically allows us to create images and tomography of the magnetosphere of neutron stars,” Medvedev said. says.

Glossary

pulsar

A rapidly rotating neutron star that emits beams of electromagnetic radiation, like a lighthouse in space.

plasma

A state of matter consisting of charged particles (electrons and positrons) produced by a strong magnetic field.

magnetosphere

The region around a celestial body where the celestial body’s magnetic field dominates the surrounding space.

quiz