Data from pulsars - light curves?

Click For Summary

Homework Help Overview

The discussion revolves around obtaining precise light curve data for the Crab pulsar and potentially other pulsars, specifically in the context of X-ray observations. The original poster expresses a need for data that allows for the visualization of individual pulses and the related power spectrum to determine pulsar frequencies.

Discussion Character

  • Exploratory, Assumption checking

Approaches and Questions Raised

  • The original poster attempts to identify suitable telescopes capable of measuring pulsar data with high precision and questions the availability of such data in the HEASARC archive. Participants suggest resources like the VizieR catalogue and the Pulsar Handbook, while some express uncertainty about the completeness of these sources.

Discussion Status

The discussion is ongoing, with participants providing suggestions for potential data sources and resources. There is a recognition of the original poster's inexperience with the relevant software and data archives, and some participants question the adequacy of the suggested resources for the specific data needs.

Contextual Notes

There is an indication that the original poster's inquiry may be related to schoolwork, which imposes certain expectations on the level of work they must demonstrate in the thread.

rnielsen25
Messages
25
Reaction score
1
Poster has been reminded to post schoolwork in the Homework Help forums
Hi everybody,

I hope some of you have worked with pulsars before or other x-ray data from NASA Heasarc.
I need some data showing a very precise light curve of the crab pulsar and some other pulsar.

It should be something like this: http://cdn.eso.org/images/screen/eso9948i.jpg
Where the time is in milliseconds ranging to 200 ms.

Or something like this:
http://www.jb.man.ac.uk/pulsar/Education/Sounds/0531_seq.mp4
The goal is to see the individual pulses, but hopefully in x-rays instead.

Then i should get a related power spectrum to the data, where i can determine the period/which frequency the pulsar pulsates.
Something like this graph:
http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v394/n6691/images/394344aa.tif.0.gif
I know these data i linked are unrelated, it's just to get an idea of what I'm looking for.

I'm quite unexperienced with the software related to HEASARC and I'm not familiar with their data archive or different kind telescopes. I have succeeded by installing the HEASOFT package. But since it is a jungle out there, i hoped some of you could help telling me what to do.
Which telescope is capable of measuring so precise, that you can graph the individual pulses on a graph, like with the crab pulsar, which pulsates around 30 times a second. Is it the RXTE?
Where should i find the data in the HEASARC archive, and what files should i look for?
It doesn't matter if it's pre-processed or finished processed data. I should just be able to determine the pulse period, the change in pulse period (dp), and knowing which telescope and what software used to data processing. Off course i should be able to show the graphs too, and i should know which year/date the data was measured.

Or is there no telescope which measure that precise, when it comes to x-ray data, and should i instead be looking for data in the radiowaves.
 
Physics news on Phys.org
Chronos said:
The data you are looking for might be included in the VizieR catalogue at http://vizier.u-strasbg.fr/viz-bin/VizieR. That is probably the best source I can think of off hand.

Sorry. But I don't think they provide the data i need. I couldn't find any though.
 
I'm not a pulsar specialist, but for the first did you look into

http://www.jb.man.ac.uk/pulsarhandbook
(D.R. Lorimer, M. Kramer, 2005, 2012)

In here (Appendix 3) some other recources are listed
 
Based on another (now deleted) thread by the OP, this appears to be for schoolwork. The OP must show the bulk of the work from now on in this thread.
 

Similar threads

  • · Replies 3 ·
Replies
3
Views
2K
  • · Replies 0 ·
Replies
0
Views
2K
  • · Replies 10 ·
Replies
10
Views
2K
  • · Replies 1 ·
Replies
1
Views
4K
  • · Replies 5 ·
Replies
5
Views
3K
  • · Replies 5 ·
Replies
5
Views
3K
  • · Replies 0 ·
Replies
0
Views
3K
  • · Replies 10 ·
Replies
10
Views
3K
Replies
5
Views
2K
  • · Replies 1 ·
Replies
1
Views
3K