Abstract
ONE or more planets may be orbiting the pulsar in the Crab Nebula. Richards et al.1 inferred the presence of a planet from the sinusoidal behaviour of the residuals in the pulse arrival time data of NP 0532 after the first and second derivatives of the pulsar period had been removed. The sinusoidal character of the residuals has, however, been queried2,3. Michel4 has attributed the period discontinuity observed last autumn5,6 (the so-called “glitch”) to a planet in a highly eccentric orbit sweeping close to the pulsar. And the Princeton group7 have tentatively fitted their pulse arrival time residuals by invoking three planets!
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References
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REES, M., TRIMBLE, V. & COHEN, J. Physical Sciences: Planet, Pulsar, “Glitch” and Wisp. Nature 229, 395–396 (1971). https://doi.org/10.1038/229395a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/229395a0
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