Expert: Jayendra Upadhye - 2/2/2005

Question
i need to know if these make sense, if they don't, why not?

1) white dwarf supernovae are useful distance indicators

2) before pulsars were discovered, noone knew for sure whether neutron stars existed

3)if you want to find a pulsar, you might want to look near the remnant of a supernova described by ancient Chinese astronomers

4) if a black hole 10 times more massive than our Sun were lurking just beyond Pluto's orbit, we'd have no way of knowing it was there

Answer
Jono I hate classwork/homework questions!
1 - False! Stars that make white dwarfs dont make supernovas.
2 - True! Pulsars are neutron stars.
3 - True! The pulsar has been found and the pulse period is known.
4 - False! It would have caused continuous rain of comets and perturbed the orbits of neptune and pluto.
Jayen