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Can neutron stars be detected from Earth?

It is thought that Pulsars are neutron stars which have an extraordinarily high speed of rotation caused by the sudden decrease in size following the supernova explosion. In theory a neutron star can rotate in periods as short as a millisecond. Pulsars can be detected from Earth.

Do Pulsars transit only radio pulses?

Some Pulsars transmit pulses at non-radio wavelengths also. For example, the Pulsar in the Crab Nebula transmits pulses in the X-ray and optical wavelengths also.

How rapidly are pulses from a pulsar transmitted?

The Pulsar in the Crab Nebula (one of the fastest) transmits pulses at intervals of 0.033 seconds and each pulse has duration of just 0.002 seconds.

What is the explanation of the behavior of a Pulsar?

A Pulsar is thought to be a type of rapidly rotating neutron star having an intense magnetic field. The radiation is tripped by the magnetic field and leaks out in narrow beams at the magnetic poles. As the star rotates the beam sweeps round like the beam of a light house and each time the beam points in the direction of Earth, a pulse signal is received.

Is the period of a Pulsar of a Pulsar constant?

The period of a Pulsar can suddenly increase and decrease due to turbulences in the neutron star which cause the rotation to change, to conserve the angular momentum.

The loss of energy of a Pulsar by radiation also causes it to slow down over a period. Hence a slowly pulsing Pulsar is likely to be an old Pulsar which has slowed down while a rapidly pulsing Pulsar is likely to be a young Pulsar that has not yet slowed down.