28 November: Pulsars

The first pulsar was discovered on this date in 1967. Ten things you might not know about pulsars.

1. What is a pulsar, anyway? It is defined as a small, dense star which emits brief and regular bursts of electromagnetic radiation.
2. The pulse effect comes from the fact that the electromagnetic radiation can only be detected when the beam is facing Earth, rather like the beam of light from a Lighthouse.
3. They are believed to be neutron stars which have run out of fuel and collapsed under their own weight, so they become smaller and pick up rotational speed rather like an ice skater does when they fold their hands into their bodies.
4. Pulsars can spin up to 5,000 to 40,000 times per minute. The faster the spin, the younger the pulsar is likely to be, since they slow down over time.
5. Some (but not all) pulsars are so regular that they keep time as well as an atomic clock.
6. They could also be used for navigation, rather like beacons and lighthouses at sea. In fact, we've already sent aliens an accurate map of how to find us by including in the Voyager space craft a diagram showing the position of our sun relative to 14 pulsars in the galaxy.
7. The word "pulsar" is a contraction of two words, pulse and star.
8. The first pulsar was discovered in 1967 by Jocelyn Bell and Antony Hewish. They detected a mysterious radio emission coming from a fixed point in the sky that peaked every 1.33 seconds. While they were certain there was a natural explanation for the signal, it was clear people were going to specualte that it was aliens trying to communicate with us, so they named it LGM-1, for “little green men”. Its official name now is PSR 1919+21.
9. There are more than 500 pulsars in our galaxy.
10. They are so dense that a teaspoon of a Pulsar could weigh as much as the largest mountain on Earth.

Golden Thread

Terry Kennedy is inexplicably and inexorably drawn to the small town of Fiveswood as a place to live and work after university. He is sure he has never visited the town before, but when he arrives there, it seems oddly familiar.

Fiveswood has a rich and intriguing history. Local legends speak of giants, angels, wolves, a local Robin Hood, but most of all, a knight in golden armour. Fiveswood's history also has a dark side - mysterious deaths blamed on the plague, a ghostly black panther, and a landslide which buried the smugglers' caves.

Terry buys an apartment in The Heights, a house which has been empty for decades, since the previous owner disappeared. Now he has finally been declared dead, developers have moved in and turned it into six flats. Terry has the odd feeling he has lived in this enigmatic house before. But that is not all. Since childhood, Terry has had recurring, disturbing dreams which have been increasing in frequency so that now, he has them almost every night. To his dismay, the people from his nightmares are his new neighbours.

Except, that is, for Eleanor Millbrook. She is refreshingly unfamiliar. After Terry saves her from a mysterious attacker, they become close. However, Terry's nightmares encroach more and more on his waking life, until they lead him to a devastating discovery about who he really is.

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