A dead star in the Crab Nebula acts like a giant magnifying lens for radio waves
Deep within the Crab Nebula, a dense star behaves like a cosmic telescope, using its intense gravity and superheated plasma to focus radio waves into powerful beams visible from Earth.
The Crab Pulsar is a collapsed stellar remnant that spins 30 times every second, creating a magnetosphere filled with plasma at millions of degrees. In a fascinating display of extreme physics, the pulsar's gravity acts as a lens that focuses radio emissions while its surrounding plasma works to defocus them. This tug-of-war creates asymmetric patterns called caustics, making the pulsar's signals appear significantly stronger in specific directions.
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