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| Paper: |
Bistatic radar - Reflections from asteroids around pulsars |
| Volume: |
36, Planets Around Pulsars |
| Page: |
321 |
| Authors: |
Phillips, J. A. |
| Abstract: |
A pulsar can be thought of as a radar which illuminates objects in its neighborhood with an intense, rotating radio beam. The radar reflection from a planetary companion would be impossible to detect from earth, but asteroids present a larger reflecting area per unit mass, and their reflection might be detectable. The reflection from a dense swarm of asteroids would be unpulsed, weakly polarized, and broadband. Observations of unpulsed flux from Vela - the strongest known pulsar - yield upper limits of about 0.0001 solar mass of asteroidlike material within 1 AU of the neutron star. |
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