Timekeeping of highly stable millisecond pulsars will accurately determine the mass of known, as well as impose restrictions on the parameters of unknown objects in the solar system, including the hypothetical Planet Nine and dark matter.
With the help of complex models of rotation of millisecond pulsars, it is possible to predict the arrival time of pulses from them with an accuracy of several hundred nanoseconds for decades to come. This gives us the opportunity to use pulsars as accurate celestial clocks for a number of studies.
-Nicolas Caballero, lead author of the study from the Institute of Astronomy and Astrophysics Kavli (China)
The use of rapidly rotating dead stars as a tool for weighing the cosmic bodies of the solar system was first proposed in 2010. The method is based on the exact time of receipt of radio signals from an array of millisecond pulsars, resembling flashing beacons. But, unlike lighthouses, these celestial objects rotate at tremendous speed and are incredibly stable.
However, the movement of the Earth around the Sun makes it difficult to directly use the time taken to pick up pulses with telescopes. To get around this problem, astronomers recalculate it relative to the general frame of reference, in this case the center of mass of the entire Solar System, the so-called barycenter.
We rely on the work of our colleagues working in the field of planetary astronomy, which uses a lot of data to create solar system ephemeris describing the orbits of planets, satellites and asteroids.
-Nicolas Caballero
If the ephemeris uses incorrect mass values, this will entail a shift in the calculated barycenter, and this, in turn, will delay the expected time of arrival of the pulse from the pulsar. Using the latest published data from the International Pulsar Timing Array (IPTA) consortium, astronomers were able to increase their sensitivity to such errors by an order of magnitude compared to the 2010 study.
If Jupiter had unexpectedly lost a mass equivalent to 10 percent of the mass of all the oceans on Earth, we would have noticed it in the IPTA data. Such accuracy allows us to independently weigh the largest objects in the asteroid belt.
-Yanjun Guo, co-author of the study from the Institute of Astronomy and Astrophysics Kavli
As part of testing the method, astronomers calculated the mass of the dwarf planet Ceres, which is the largest object in the Asteroid belt between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter. The results showed that its mass is 1.3% by weight of the moon. The value is almost completely consistent with the current best estimates obtained by other methods: 1.27% by weight of the moon.
The current data set includes about two decades of observations and is the product of the hard work of hundreds of scientists and engineers around the world.
-Michael Kramer, co-author of the study from the Institute of Astronomy and Astrophysics Kavli
In search of invisible objects
The researchers note that the new approach allows you to go beyond the weighing of known objects in the solar system and can be used to search for hidden cosmic bodies, setting upper masses for any of them.
While this pilot study, but, nevertheless, it shows the exciting possibilities that pulsars offer to study the solar system, and allows you to impose restrictions on the parameters of theoretically suspected objects, starting from Planet Nine and ending with dark matter in the vicinity of the Sun.
-Yangzhun Go
Search for solar system hidden planets with pulsars
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