I've just been reading some stuff on the "Methusalah" system PSR B1620-26 (or something like that) in M4, the 13 billion year old planet.
This got me thinking about pulsar beams.
1. What kind of radiation do pulsar beams emit? Is it all radio waves or is there other stuff e.g. subatomic particles, visible light etc.
2. How is the beam created?
3. Could a gas giant's magnetic field stop the pulsar beam reaching the planet's atmosphere or would you get really funky aurorae all over the place? Oh, and what colour would the aurorae be in an atmosphere of hydrogen/helium and not much else (old planet = low metallicity, right?)
Questions about Pulsars
1. What kind of radiation do pulsar beams emit? Is it all radio waves or is there other stuff e.g. subatomic particles, visible light etc.
AFAIK pretty much everything, but what we see is mostly radio waves. Only a few neutron stars have been imaged in visible light, but Crab Pulsar have been seen blinking in visible light.
2. How is the beam created?
In it's powerful magnetic field (cyclotron radiation?).
3. Could a gas giant's magnetic field stop the pulsar beam reaching the planet's atmosphere or would you get really funky aurorae all over the place?
Beam probably has to be well aimed if it hits the planet, and if it does any planetary magnetic field can't hold. Immense radiation from pulsar can rip whole stars apart (e.g. the Black Widow Pulsar).
Oh, and what colour would the aurorae be in an atmosphere of hydrogen/helium and not much else (old planet = low metallicity, right?)
Good question. What color are aurorae in Jupiter or Saturn?