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Podcast: StarDate
Episode: Pulsar Planets
Description: Planets are tough little buggers. They can form and survive in some extreme environments. In fact, the first confirmed planets outside our own solar system orbit the remnant of a dead star – a pulsar.
A pulsar is tiny – the size of a small city. But it’s more massive than the Sun. A teaspoon of its matter would weigh as much as a mountain. Yet a pulsar spins rapidly – up to several hundred times per second. It has an extreme magnetic field. The field shoots “jets” of particles out into space. As the pulsar spins, the jets can sweep ac...