The Pulsar and Extra-Solar Planets

A fairly usual pulsar, most famous for being the first star to have planets discovered orbiting it. These three planets were discovered in 1994 by Doctor Alexander Wolszczan of Pennsylvania State University, Who, of course is the famous discoverer of the first three extra-solar planets.

In 1995 it was suggested that there may be a universal mechanism to planetary formation because of the fact that the pulsar's three planets roughly match the properties of Mercury, Venus and Earth (The two most distant planets have the same mass while the inner one is smaller.) Since then this theory has been disproven because of the existance of planets such as the one found orbiting 51 Pegasus, which is half the size of Jupiter but closer to its sun than mercury is to ours.

However, if there is a universal mechanism of planetary construction PSR 1257+14 could play an important part in discovering it, not least because the properties of a pulsar are so dissimilar to earth's own star, yet the planets share some properties.

The Pulsar

The pulsar formed in the usual way, from the remanent of a star that has undergone a super-nova explosion. This would have destroyed any planets that existed before the explosion and means that PSR 1257+14's planets must have been formed afterwards, possibly from debris.

The Pulsar itself is ten kilometres accross and emits radio waves. The system is too radioactive to allow any life to evolve.

Finally

The tradgedy of PSR 1257+14 in my opinion is that it has been forgotten from history. The first extra-solar planets (Even though they were only ever seen indirectly) are doomed to remain in obscurity, along with King Zog of Albania and The discovery of Lawrencium.