66: Inscrutable Neutrons & Perplexing Pulsars

 
crab.jpg

Neutron stars are weird. Pulsars are weird. All pulsars are neutron stars. Are all neutron stars pulsars? Hmmm. How are they born? Do they die? Are they all the same? How big are they? Do pulsars all spin at the same rate? Or do they speed up, or slow down? So many questions — and we can thank Fabulous Listener Dave Weingartner for getting in touch to ask!

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Things we talked about in this episode:

Neutron stars and pulsars

Videos on neutron stars from Kurzgesagt: video 1, video 2

Most precise pulsar, more stable than an Atomic clock

The Crab Nebula pulsar

Video on the Supernova of 1054

P-dot disgram

The Ideal Gas Law

Equations of state

LIGO

Gravitational wave evidence for neutron star mergers

Veritasium video on neutron star mergers