Pulsar planets are planets that are orbiting pulsars. The first such planets to be discovered were around a millisecond pulsar in 1992 and were the first extrasolar planets to be confirmed as discovered. Pulsars are extremely precise clocks and even small planets can create detectable variations in pulsar traits; the smallest known exoplanet is a pulsar planet.
They are extremely rare, with only half a dozen listed by the NASA Exoplanet Archive. Only special processes can give rise to planet-sized companions around pulsars, and many are thought to be exotic bodies, such as planets made of diamond, that were formed through the partial destruction of a companion star. The intense radiation and winds consisting of electron-positron pairs would tend to strip atmospheres away from such planets, thus making them unlikely abodes for life.
The formation of planets requires the existence of a protoplanetary disk, most theories also require a "dead zone" within it where there is no turbulence. There, planetesimals can form and accumulate without falling into the star. [1] Compared to young stars, pulsars have a much higher luminosity and thus the formation of a dead zone is hindered by the ionization of the disk by the pulsar's radiation, [2] which allows the magnetorotational instability to trigger turbulence and thus destroy the dead zone. [3] Thus, a disk needs to have a large mass if it is to give rise to planets. [4]
There are several processes [a] that could give rise to planetary systems:
The formation scenarios have consequences for the planets' composition: A planet formed from supernova debris is likely rich in metals and radioactive isotopes [15] and may contain large quantities of water; [18] one formed through the break-up of a white dwarf would be carbon rich [15] and consist of large amounts of diamond; [19] an actual white dwarf fragment would be extremely dense. [15] As of 2022 [update] , the most common type of planet around a pulsar is a "diamond planet", a very low mass white dwarf. [20] Other objects around pulsars could include asteroids, comets and planetoids. [21] More speculative scenarios are planets consisting of strange matter, which could occur much more close to the pulsars than ordinary matter planets, potentially emitting gravitational waves. [22]
Planets can interact with the magnetic field of a pulsar to produce so-called "Alfvén wings," these are wing-shaped electrical currents around the planet which inject energy into the planet [23] and could produce detectable radio emissions. [24]
Pulsars are extremely precise clocks [4] and pulsar timing is highly regular. It is thus possible to detect very small objects around pulsars, down to the size of large asteroids, [1] from changes in the timing of the pulsar hosting them. The timing needs to be corrected for the effects of the motions of Earth and the Solar System, errors in the position estimates of the pulsar and of the travel times of the radiation across the interstellar medium. Pulsars spin and slow down over time in highly regular fashion; [4] planets alter this pattern through their gravitational attraction on the pulsar, causing a Doppler shift in the pulses. [25] The technique could in theory be also used to detect exomoons around pulsar planets. [26] There are limitations to pulsar planet visibility however; pulsar glitches and changes in the pulsation mode can mimick the existence of planets. [27]
The first [b] extrasolar planets to be discovered (in 1992 by Dale Frail and Aleksander Wolszczan) were the pulsar planets around PSR B1257+12. [30] The discovery demonstrated that exoplanets can be detected from Earth, [31] and led to the expectation that extrasolar planets might not be uncommon. [4] As of 2016 [update] [32] the least massive known extrasolar planet (PSR B1257+12 A, only 0.02 ME) is a pulsar planet. [33]
However, the size and particular spectroscopic traits makes actually visualizing such planets very difficult. [15] One potential way to image a planet is to detect its transit in front of the star: in case of pulsar planets, the probability of a planet transiting in front of pulsar is very low because of the small size of pulsars. Spectroscopic analyses of planets are rendered difficult by the complicated spectra of pulsars. Interactions between a planetary magnetic field, the pulsar and the thermal emissions of planets are more likely avenues of getting information on the planets. [34]
Pulsar planets have been invoked to explain certain astronomical phenomena, such as X-ray bursts from soft gamma repeaters. [35]
As of 2022 [update] only about half-dozen [c] pulsar planets are known, [11] implying an occurrence rate of no more than one planetary system per 200 pulsars. [d] [39] Most of the planet formation scenarios require that the precursor be a binary star with one star much more massive than the other, and that the system survives the supernova that generated the pulsar. Both these conditions are rarely met and thus the formation of pulsar planets is a rare process. [3] Additionally, planets and their orbits would have to survive the energetic radiation emitted by pulsars, including X-rays, gamma rays and energetic particles ("pulsar wind"). [6] This would be particularly important for millisecond pulsars that were spun up by accretion, while they formed X-ray binaries; the radiation emitted under these circumstances would evaporate any planet. [40] Pulsars remain visible for only a few million years, less than the time it takes for a planet to form, thus limiting the chance of observing one. [41]
Based on the known occurrence rate of pulsar planets, there might be as many as 10 million of them in the Milky Way. [e] [44] All known pulsar planets are found around millisecond pulsars, [1] these are old pulsars that were spun up through the accretion of mass from a companion. As of 2015 [update] there are no known planets around young pulsars; [45] they are less regular than millisecond pulsars, increasing the pulsar timing error and thus making planet detection more difficult. [34]
Companion (in order from star) | Mass | Semimajor axis (AU) | Orbital period (days) | Eccentricity | Inclination | Radius [h] |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
M62H b | >2.47 MJ | 0.132935 | ~ | ~ | <0.653 RJ | |
PSR B1257+12 b | 0.02 ME (6.3 × 10⁻⁵ MJ) | 0.19 | 25.262 | 0 | ~ | ~ |
PSR B1257+12 c | 4.3 ME (0.0135 MJ) | 0.36 | 66.5419 | 0.0186 | ~ | |
PSR B1257+12 d | 3.9 ME (0.0123 MJ) | 0.46 | 98.2114 | 0.03 | ~ | |
PSR B1620-26 b | 2.5 MJ | 23 | 34,675 | ~ | ~ | 1.18 RJ [47] |
PSR J1719-1438 b | 1.2 MJ | 0.0044 | 0.090706293 | 0.06 | ~ | 0.4 RJ [48] |
PSR J2007+3120 b | 2.3 ME [49] | ~ | 723 [49] | ~ | ~ | ~ |
PSR J2322-2650 b | 0.7949 MJ | 0.0102 | 0.322963997 | 0.0017 | ~ | 1.24 RJ [50] |
PSR B0943+10 b | 2.8 MJ | 1.8 | 730 [51] | ~ | ~ | ~ |
PSR B0943+10 c | 2.6 MJ | 2.9 | 1,460 [52] | ~ | ~ | ~ |
PSR J1748-2021H b | 7.54 MJ | 0.0111 | 0.360787526 [53] | ~ | ~ | ~ |
PSR J0636+5129 b | 8.5 MJ | 0.0036 | 0.0665513392 | ~ | 60 | 0.74 RJ [54] |
PSR J1807-2459 A b | 10.5 MJ | ~ | 0.07 [55] | ~ | ~ | ~ |
PSR B1802-07 b | 10 MJ | 0.008098 | 0.071092 | 0.0000003 [56] | ~ | ~ |
PSR J1211-0633 b | 10 MJ | 0.0116 | 0.38634962 [57] | ~ | ~ | ~ |
PSR J0312-0921 b | 10.47 MJ | 0.00465 | 0.0975 [58] | ~ | ~ | ~ |
PSR J1824-2452G b | 11 MJ | 0.004875 | 0.1046 | 0.0000003 | ~ | ~ |
PSR J1928+1245 b | 11 MJ | 0.005825 | 0.1366347269 [59] | ~ | ~ | ~ |
PSR J1824-2452M b | 11 MJ | 0.00854 | 0.242519219 [60] | ~ | ~ | ~ |
PSR J1630+3550 b | 11.3 MJ | ~ | 0.315863166 | 0.00042 | ~ | ~ |
PSR J2241-5236 b | 12 MJ | ~ | 0.1456722395 [61] | ~ | ~ | ~ |
PSR J1311-3430 b | 12 MJ | ~ | 0.065115 [62] | ~ | ~ | ~ |
M62H is a millisecond pulsar located in the constellation Ophiuchus. It is located in the globular cluster Messier 62, [63] at a distance of 5,600 parsecs (18,000 ly) from Earth. [64] The pulsar was discovered in 2024 using the MeerKAT radio telescope. [63] M62H has a rotational period of 3.70 milliseconds, meaning it completes 270 rotations per second (270 Hz). [65] Its planetary companion has a minimum mass of 2.5 MJ and a median mass of 2.83 MJ, assuming a mass of 1.4 M☉ for the pulsar. Its minimum density is of 11 g/cm3. Assuming the median mass, it implies a maximum radius of 48,850 kilometres (30,350 mi). [66] The planet takes just 0.133 days (3.2 h) to complete an orbit, and is located at a distance equivalent to 0.49% of an astronomical unit from M62H. [67]
The pulsar PSR B1257+12, 710+43
−38 parsecs away [68] in the constellation Virgo, was confirmed to have planets in 1992 based on observations made with the Arecibo Observatory. [69] The system consists of one tiny planet with a mass of 0.02±0.002 Earth masses and two Super-Earths with masses 4.3±0.2 and 3.9±0.2 times that of Earth, assuming that the pulsar has a mass of 1.4 solar masses. [70] They most likely formed from a protoplanetary disk, [1] probably generated from the partial destruction of a companion star. [8] Computer simulations have shown that the system should be stable for at least one billion years [70] and that exomoons could survive in the system. [71] The system resembles the inner Solar System; [4] the planets orbit the pulsar at distances comparable to that of Mercury to the Sun and may have comparable surface temperatures. [72] Reports of additional bodies in this system might be due to solar disturbances. [73]
A cthonian planet [74] with a mass comparable to Jupiter but less than 40% of its radius orbits the pulsar PSR J1719-1438. [i] [1] This planet is probably the carbon-rich remnant of a companion star that was evaporated by the pulsar's radiation [3] and has been described as a "diamond planet". [j] [6]
A circumbinary planet with a mass of 2.5±1 Jupiter masses [76] orbits around PSR B1620-26, a binary star consisting of a pulsar and a white dwarf [1] in the globular cluster M4. [4] This planet may have been captured into the pulsar's orbit, a process which is particularly likely within the packed environment of a globular cluster, [15] and may be about 12.6 billion years old, making it the oldest known planet. [k] [77] Its existence may demonstrate that planets can form in metal-poor medium including the globular clusters. [78]
PSR J2322-2650 seems to have a roughly Jupiter-mass companion. The radiation from the pulsar could be heating it to about 2300 K; a light source observed close to the pulsar may be the planet. [79] This pulsar is considerably less luminous than many, which may explain why the planet has survived to this day. [80]
Timing variations of the pulsars PSR B1937+21 and PSR J0738-4042 may reflect the existence of an asteroid belt [l] around the pulsars, and collisions between asteroids or comets and pulsars have been proposed as an explanation for the phenomenon of fast radio bursts, [m] the gamma ray burst GRB 101225A [6] and other types of pulsar variability. [84] There are no known debris disks around pulsars, although the magnetars 4U 0142+61 and 1E 2259+586 [n] have been suggested to harbour them. [2]
The white dwarf-pulsar binary PSR J0348+0432 may be a system that could develop pulsar planets in the future. [86] The existence of a dust cloud at the pulsar Geminga that may be a precursor to planets has been proposed. [87]
There were earlier reports of pulsar planets which were either retracted or considered unconvincing, [88] such as the 1991 "discovery" of a planet around PSR B1829-10 which turned out to be an artifact caused by the motion of the Earth. [4] The existence of planets around the pulsar PSR B0329+54 has been debated since 1979 and is still unresolved as of 2017 [update] . [89] PSR B1828-11 has been conclusively established to display magnetospheric activity that mimicks planets, without having any, [90] and a planet candidate around the pulsar Geminga was later attributed to timing noise. [87]
Companion (in order from star) | Mass | Semimajor axis (AU) | Orbital period (days) | Eccentricity | Inclination | Radius |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
PSR B0329+54 b | 1.97 ME (0.0062 MJ) | 10.26 | 10,140 | 0.236 | ~ | 1.22 R🜨 [91] |
PSR B1828-11 a | 1.3 ME (0.0041 MJ) | ~ | 231 | 0.14 [49] | ~ | ~ |
PSR B1828-11 b | 6.0 ME (0.0189 MJ) | ~ | 498 | 0.23 [49] | ~ | ~ |
PSR J1555-2908 c | 0.04132 ME (1.3 × 10⁻⁴ MJ) | ~ | 4,500 | 0.27 <ref> [92] | ~ | ~ |
PSR B0525+21 b | 0.2988 ME (9.4 × 10⁻⁴ MJ) | 10.35 | 10,132 | 0.96 [93] | ~ | ~ |
PSR B1937+21 b | 0.3178 ME (0.001 MJ) | 11 | 11,400 | 0.2 [94] | ~ | ~ |
PSR J2007+3120 b | 2.3 ME (0.0072 MJ) | ~ | 723 | <0.38 [49] | ~ | ~ |
PSR J0337+1715 (AB) b | 9.5348 ME (0.030 MJ) | ~ | 3,000 [95] | ~ | ~ | ~ |
SGR 1806-20 b | 18.0844 ME (0.0569 MJ) | 0.85 | 238 | 0.992 [96] | ~ | ~ |
PSR B1540-06 b | 1.1 ME (0.0034 MJ) | ~ | 1,473 | 0.12 [49] | ~ | ~ |
PSR B1714-34 b | 6.3 ME (0.0198 MJ) | ~ | 1,417 | 0.14 [49] | ~ | ~ |
PSR B1826-17 b | 2.6 ME (0.0082 MJ) | ~ | 1,102 | 0.35 [49] | ~ | ~ |
PSR B0144+59 b | 0.06 ME (1.9 × 10⁻⁴ MJ) | ~ | 319 | 0.45 [49] | ~ | ~ |
PSR B1727-33 b | 3.5 ME (0.0110 MJ) | ~ | 350 | 0.26 [49] | ~ | ~ |
PSR B2053+36 b | 0.09 ME (2.8 × 10⁻⁴ MJ) | ~ | 1,013 | 0.4 [49] | ~ | ~ |
PSR J1758-1931 b | 6.1 ME (0.0192 MJ) | ~ | 719 | 0.43 [49] | ~ | ~ |
PSR J1843-0744 b | 1 ME (0.0031 MJ) | ~ | 650 | 0.4 [49] | ~ | ~ |
PSR J1904+0800 b | 1 ME (0.0031 MJ) | ~ | 946 | 0.18 [49] | ~ | ~ |
PSR J2216+5759 b | 3.5 ME (0.011 MJ) | ~ | 117 | 0.41 [49] | ~ | ~ |
PSR J1947+1957 b | 3.7 ME (0.0116 MJ) | ~ | 1,070 | 0.56 [49] | ~ | ~ |
PSR B1931+24 b | 56 ME (0.176 MJ) | ~ | 5,180 | 0.25 [49] | ~ | ~ |
PSR B0823+26 b | 0.08 ME (2.5 × 10⁻⁴ MJ) | ~ | 28 | 0.37 [49] | ~ | ~ |
SWIFT J1756.9-2508 b | 7.8 MJ | 0.0012346 | 0.0379907 [97] | ~ | ~ | ~ |
Pulsars emit a very different radiation spectrum than regular stars, with very little optical or infrared radiation but large amounts of ionizing radiation [44] and electron-positron pairs, which are generated by the pulsar's magnetic field as it spins. Additionally, remnant heat from before the pulsar's birth, heating of the pulsar's poles from its own radiation and from mass accretion processes drives the emission of thermal radiation and neutrinos. [98] The electron-positron pairs and X-rays are absorbed by planetary atmospheres and heat them, driving intense atmospheric escape that can strip them away. [99] The presence of a planetary magnetic field could mitigate the impact of the electron-positron pairs. [100]
Habitability is conventionally defined by the equilibrium temperature of a planet, which is a function of the amount of incoming radiation; a planet is defined "habitable" if liquid water can exist on its surface [101] although even planets with little external energy can harbour underground life. [102] Pulsars do not emit large quantities of radiation given their small size; the habitable zone can easily end up lying so close to the star that tidal effects destroy the planets. [103] Additionally, it is often unclear how much radiation a given pulsar emits and how much of it can actually reach a hypothetical planet's surface; of the known pulsar planets, only these of PSR B1257+12 are close to the habitable zone [104] and as of 2015 [update] , no known pulsar planet is likely to be habitable. [4] [38] Additional heat sources may be radioactive isotopes such as potassium-40 formed during the supernova that gave rise to the pulsar [18] and tidal heating for planets with close orbits. [105] Radiation from outside sources such as companion stars would also add to the energy budget. [74]
An exoplanet or extrasolar planet is a planet outside the Solar System. The first possible evidence of an exoplanet was noted in 1917 but was not then recognized as such. The first confirmation of the detection occurred in 1992. A different planet, first detected in 1988, was confirmed in 2003. As of 12 December 2024, there are 5,806 confirmed exoplanets in 4,336 planetary systems, with 972 systems having more than one planet. The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) is expected to discover more exoplanets, and to give more insight into their traits, such as their composition, environmental conditions, and potential for life.
Aleksander Wolszczan is a Polish astronomer. He is the co-discoverer of the first confirmed extrasolar planets and pulsar planets. He is a graduate of the Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń and works as a professor at the Pennsylvania State University.
PSR B1257+12, previously designated PSR 1257+12, alternatively designated PSR J1300+1240, is a millisecond pulsar, 2,300 light-years from the Sun, in the constellation Virgo, rotating at about 161 times per second. It is also named Lich, after a powerful, fictional undead creature.
Gliese 876 is a red dwarf star 15.2 light-years away from Earth in the constellation of Aquarius. It is one of the closest known stars to the Sun confirmed to possess a planetary system with more than two planets, after GJ 1061, YZ Ceti, Tau Ceti, and Wolf 1061; as of 2018, four extrasolar planets have been found to orbit the star. The planetary system is also notable for the orbital properties of its planets. It is the only known system of orbital companions to exhibit a near-triple conjunction in the rare phenomenon of Laplace resonance. It is also the first extrasolar system around a normal star with measured coplanarity. While planets b and c are located in the system's habitable zone, they are giant planets believed to be analogous to Jupiter.
A pulsar is a highly magnetized rotating neutron star that emits beams of electromagnetic radiation out of its magnetic poles. This radiation can be observed only when a beam of emission is pointing toward Earth, and is responsible for the pulsed appearance of emission. Neutron stars are very dense and have short, regular rotational periods. This produces a very precise interval between pulses that ranges from milliseconds to seconds for an individual pulsar. Pulsars are one of the candidates for the source of ultra-high-energy cosmic rays.
A carbon planet is a hypothetical type of planet that contains more carbon than oxygen. Carbon is the fourth most abundant element in the universe by mass after hydrogen, helium, and oxygen.
A millisecond pulsar (MSP) is a pulsar with a rotational period less than about 10 milliseconds. Millisecond pulsars have been detected in radio, X-ray, and gamma ray portions of the electromagnetic spectrum. The leading hypothesis for the origin of millisecond pulsars is that they are old, rapidly rotating neutron stars that have been spun up or "recycled" through accretion of matter from a companion star in a close binary system. For this reason, millisecond pulsars are sometimes called recycled pulsars.
The Hulse–Taylor pulsar is a binary star system composed of a neutron star and a pulsar which orbit around their common center of mass. It is the first binary pulsar ever discovered.
A binary pulsar is a pulsar with a binary companion, often a white dwarf or neutron star. Binary pulsars are one of the few objects which allow physicists to test general relativity because of the strong gravitational fields in their vicinities. Although the binary companion to the pulsar is usually difficult or impossible to observe directly, its presence can be deduced from the timing of the pulses from the pulsar itself, which can be measured with extraordinary accuracy by radio telescopes.
Any planet is an extremely faint light source compared to its parent star. For example, a star like the Sun is about a billion times as bright as the reflected light from any of the planets orbiting it. In addition to the intrinsic difficulty of detecting such a faint light source, the light from the parent star causes a glare that washes it out. For those reasons, very few of the exoplanets reported as of January 2024 have been observed directly, with even fewer being resolved from their host star.
HD 114762 b is a small red dwarf star, in the HD 114762 system, formerly thought to be a massive gaseous extrasolar planet, approximately 126 light-years (38.6 pc) away in the constellation of Coma Berenices. This optically undetected companion to the late F-type main-sequence star HD 114762 was discovered in 1989 by Latham, et al., and confirmed in an October 1991 paper by Cochran, et al. It was thought to be the first discovered exoplanet
PSR B1257+12 b, alternatively designated PSR B1257+12 A, also named Draugr, is an extrasolar planet approximately 2,300 light-years (710 pc) away in the constellation of Virgo. The planet is the innermost object orbiting the pulsar Lich, making it a pulsar planet in the dead stellar system. It is about twice as massive as the Moon, and is listed as the least massive planet known, including among the planets in the Solar System.
PSR B1257+12 c, alternatively designated PSR B1257+12 B, also named Poltergeist, is an extrasolar planet approximately 2,300 light-years away in the constellation of Virgo. It was one of the first planets ever discovered outside the Solar System, and is one of three pulsar planets known to be orbiting the pulsar Lich.
PSR B1257+12 C, alternatively designated PSR B1257+12 d and also named Phobetor, is a super-Earth exoplanet orbiting the pulsar Lich approximately 2,315 light-years away from Earth in the constellation of Virgo. It was one of the first planets ever discovered outside the Solar System. It was discovered using the pulsar timing method, where the regular pulses of a pulsar are measured to determine if there is a planet causing variations in the data.
A circumbinary planet is a planet that orbits two stars instead of one. The two stars orbit each other in a binary system, while the planet typically orbits farther from the center of the system than either of the two stars. In contrast, circumstellar planets in a binary system have stable orbits around one of the two stars, closer in than the orbital distance of the other star. Studies in 2013 showed that there is a strong hint that a circumbinary planet and its stars originate from a single disk.
PSR B1937+21 is a pulsar located in the constellation Vulpecula a few degrees in the sky away from the first discovered pulsar, PSR B1919+21. The name PSR B1937+21 is derived from the word "pulsar" and the declination and right ascension at which it is located, with the "B" indicating that the coordinates are for the 1950.0 epoch. PSR B1937+21 was discovered in 1982 by Don Backer, Shri Kulkarni, Carl Heiles, Michael Davis, and Miller Goss.
A planetary-mass object (PMO), planemo, or planetary body is, by geophysical definition of celestial objects, any celestial object massive enough to achieve hydrostatic equilibrium, but not enough to sustain core fusion like a star.
PSR J1719-1438 is a millisecond pulsar with a spin period of 5.8 ms located about 4,000 ly from Earth in the direction of Serpens Cauda, one minute from the border with Ophiuchus. Millisecond pulsars are generally thought to begin as normal pulsars and then spin up by accreting matter from a binary companion.
PSR J0337+1715 is a millisecond pulsar discovered in a Green Bank Telescope drift-scan survey from 2007. It is spinning nearly 366 times per second, 4200 light years away in the constellation Taurus. It is the first pulsar found in a stellar triple system. It is co-orbiting very closely with another star, a 0.2 solar-mass white dwarf, with a period of 1.6 days. There is a second white dwarf further out which is orbiting both the pulsar and the inner white dwarf, and has an orbit with a period of 327 days and a mass of 0.4 solar masses. The fact that the pulsar is part of a triple system provides an opportunity to test the nature of gravity and the strong equivalence principle, with a sensitivity several orders of magnitude greater than before.
The habitability of neutron star systems is the potential of planets and moons orbiting a neutron star to provide suitable habitats for life. Of the roughly 3000 neutron stars known, only a handful have sub-stellar companions. The most famous of these are the low-mass planets around the millisecond pulsar PSR B1257+12.