On 25 Mar 2007 07:36:34 -0700, "Jerry" wrote:

On Mar 25, 2:41 am, "Jerry" wrote:

This is not to say that the surface of the white dwarf
companion of PSR J1909-3744 is non-turbulent. Far from it.
Tidal effects from the closely orbiting pulsar

Bad choice of words. Sorry. I see there has been some
confusion in this thread about who was orbiting whom. The
pulsar weighs 1.438 +/- 0.024 solar masses, and its companion
weighs 0.2038 +/- 0.022 solar masses, so if anything, one
should say that the white dwarf orbits the pulsar.

Actually, of course, they orbit around their common
barycenter, so what's the big deal?

It is very BIG.

It means I don't need anywhere near as much extinction to explain the distance
anomaly. Orbit pitch can also be included in the equation.

would be expected to drive complex "weather" patterns on
its surface. However, any luminosity variances due to
these effects would be completely negligible relative to
the flux of black body radiation.

Jerry


"When a true genius appears in the world, you may know
him by this sign, that the dunces are all in confederacy against him."
--Jonathan Swift.