Topic: I get stressed out thinking about the fact that pulsars are glitchy dying astronomical clocks

Anonymous A started this discussion 6 years ago #95,067

They are considered highly regular but they are all slowly dying and are subject to error and even random glitches. This stresses me out a lot to think about.

(Edited 22 seconds later.)

Meta !Sober//iZs joined in and replied with this 6 years ago, 24 minutes later[^] [v] #1,073,859

What if they actually ARE perfectly regular, but it's our measuring equipment that's glitchy? ?

Anonymous C joined in and replied with this 6 years ago, 1 minute later, 25 minutes after the original post[^] [v] #1,073,860

@previous (Meta !Sober//iZs)

What if everything is just glitchy?

Beebs !gINgerDI62 joined in and replied with this 6 years ago, 22 minutes later, 48 minutes after the original post[^] [v] #1,073,861

@previous (C)
What if we are the glitch?

Anonymous C replied with this 6 years ago, 27 minutes later, 1 hour after the original post[^] [v] #1,073,864

@previous (Beebs !gINgerDI62)

OP's post is definitely a glitch. Only millisecond pulsars rival atomic clocks in time keeping. All pulsars can have "glitches", but these glitches are just a brief change in rotation speed. Scientists believe they are most likely linked to the star's core in some way.

Minichan