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How to Use Pulsars for Interstellar Navigation
News Type: Event — Seeded on Thu May 28, 2009 6:22 PM EDT
Article Source: Technology Reviewadvertisement
The signals from pulsars form a natural GPS system that could locate any object in the galaxy to within a meter.
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{"commentId":7335784,"authorDomain":"Arcturas"}
Fascinating
{"commentId":7335784,"threadId":"589960","contentId":"2874769","authorDomain":"Arcturas"}
- 1 vote
#1 - Thu May 28, 2009 6:23 PM EDT{"commentId":7336639,"authorDomain":"rsather139"}
Indeed. I wonder could it be used beyond our solar system? I somewhat doubt it, because the pulsars wouldn't be in the right alignment. Nevetheless this would help us a lot when we push out into the solar system.
{"commentId":7336639,"threadId":"589960","contentId":"2874769","authorDomain":"rsather139"}
- 2 votes
{"commentId":7337830,"authorDomain":"fredegrar"}
I wonder could it be used beyond our solar system? I somewhat doubt it, because the pulsars wouldn't be in the right alignment.
The article seems to be making the claim that it'd work anywhere in the galaxy, which I thought was interesting. That sort of challenges my understanding of how pulsars work... I thought we could only detect those pulsars whose radio beam - like the beam of a lighthouse - happened to rotate in a plane (or at least a cone) that included the Earth and that these beams were relatively tight. If my understanding were correct (and I'm not sure it is), that'd mean we couldn't necessarily get a signal from the same four pulsars just anywhere in the galaxy. Even if I'm right, though, you're right that it should at least be usable "locally". Now if only we had a spaceship capable of joy riding around the solar system, we'd be all set...
{"commentId":7337830,"threadId":"589960","contentId":"2874769","authorDomain":"fredegrar"}
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