How to Hear a Planet Near a Dead Star ⚡ экспресс
Planets were first discovered around pulsars—rapidly spinning dead stars that beam radio waves. Now, scientists suggest detecting such worlds by the radio "glow" from the pulsar's wind hitting the planet, like wind whistling around a flagpole. Simulations show a known planet, PSR J0636+5129 b, should be detectable. Might we soon listen to these ghostly worlds?
The first exoplanet was discovered around an unusual cosmic lighthouse — a neutron star known as a pulsar. These ultra-dense remnants of dead stars spin at tremendous speeds and emit precise radio pulses. In 1967, Jocelyn Bell Burnell detected such signals, and at first they were mistaken for an alien message.
Now scientists have found a new way to "hear" planets around pulsars. Besides the pulses, the star emits a continuous wind — a stream of charged particles racing at nearly the speed of light. A planet in this hurricane becomes an obstacle: as the wind flows around it, it stirs up radio waves — like a stone thrown into a stream creates ripples in the water.
Computer simulations confirmed that such radio glow can be detected from the known pulsar PSR J0636+5129 b. This opens the door to finding other exoplanets in the harshest corners of the Universe, even where deadly radiation reigns.
🎯 Planets around pulsars are one of the most extreme places in the Universe: magnetic fields there are trillions of times stronger than Earth's, and the particle wind is accelerated to near light-speed.