Sunita Williams celebrates 59th birthday, second in space
Indian-origin astronaut Sunita Williams has celebrated her 59th birthday -- the second in space.
India’s multi-wavelength space telescope AstroSat had measured the X-ray polarisation of the Crab pulsar (star) in the Taurus constellation, said space agency ISRO on Monday.
“AstroSat accomplished the difficult task of measuring X-ray polarisation of Crab pulsar in the Taurus constellation during 18 months of its study,” said the Indian Space Research Organisaion (ISRO) in a statement here.
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ISRO launched its first dedicated space observatory AstroSat on a Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle on September 28, 2015 from its spaceport at Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh.
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“The telescope measured the variations of polarisation as the magetised object (pulsar) spins 30 times per second,” said the statement quoting from a paper published in “Nature Astronomy”.
A pulsar is a rotating neutron star or white dwarf, which emits electromagnetic radiation, and the landmark measurement challenges theories of high energy X-ray emission from pulsars.
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