Update for readers of Decoding the Message of the Pulsars
May 2006
The Millesecond Pulsar PSR J1748-2446ad As of this time more than 27 additional pulsars have been discovered bringing the total to over 1560. One of these is pulsar PSR J1748-2446ad which is located in the Terzan 5 globular cluster positioned at galactic coordinates (l = 3.84°, b = 1.69°) just 4.2° northeast of the Galactic center. This millesecond pulsar, whose discovery was announced in January 2006, is unique in that it holds the new speed record as being the fastest pulsing pulsar in the sky. It pulses 716 times per second, 10.3% faster than the Millisecond Pulsar. The Millisecond Pulsar, however, still reigns as King of millisecond pulsars since the 716 Hertz pulsar has not been found to harbor any unusual pulsing features such as giant pulses or optical pulses. Moreover it is much dimmer, about one percent as bright as the Millisecond Pulsar.
The 716 Hz pulsar is not the closest to the Galactic center. Eight other pulsars come physically closer. However, its host star cluster, Terzan 5, stands out as being very unique. Of the approximately one hundred globular clusters that lie in the vicinity of the galactic core, only Terzan 5 and NGC 6522 have been found to contain pulsars. But whereas NGC 6522 contains a solitary pulsar, Terzan 5 astoundingly contains a total of 33 pulsars, all but just a few of which are millisecond pulsars. This collection includes the fastest millisecond pulsar in the Galaxy the 716 Hertz pulsar as well as the fourth and fifth fastest pulsing pulsars, all three of which happen to be eclipsing binary pulsars. It also contains the eighth and ninth fastest pulsing pulsars which are non eclipsing binaries. Why does Terzan 5 have such a high concentration of millisecond pulsars considering that few globular clusters contain pulsars? A good reason has yet to be suggested.
Considering that Terzan 5 not only has the highest concentration of pulsars in the Galaxy, but harbors many of the fastest pulsing pulsars in the Galaxy, we are left to wonder whether the Terzan 5 pulsar complex could be an intentional celestial marker, like the Millisecond Pulsar. Being physically close to the Galactic center, could it be making a reference to this central Galactic location? Finding that the three fastest pulsing pulsars in this cluster all happen to be eclipsing binaries, whose orbital planes are aimed in our direction, we are left to wonder whether this is all intentional. Like the Eclipsing Binary Millisecond Pulsar in Sagitta, could they be informing us that they are sending a message meant for us?
Could the Terzan 5 pulser cluster be a marker left to warn us of the future arrival of a superwave? Besides being situated quite close to the Galactic center, it also lies quite close to the plane of the ecliptic at ecliptic coordinate (l = 267.3°, b = -1.36°). The winter solstice, which currently coincides with ecliptic longitude 270°, will have moved by 2.7° to this 267.3° Terzan 5 longitude marker by the year 2300 AD due to the precession of the Earth's poles. Could an extraterrestrial civilization have engineered this dense clump of pulsars in order to notify us of the date of arrival of the next superwave? The Mayans have prophecied a cataclysmic end date occurring when the winter solstice conjuncts the galactic equator, hence around around the current period which falls close to their calendar end date of 2012 AD. If Terzan 5 is marking an upcoming superwave cataclysm, then could the 5100 year old Mayan calendar have predicted a date that is 300 years too early?
The Crab supernova remnant and its unique pulsar also lies below the ecliptic by a comparable angle of -1.29° but is found on the opposite side of the ecliptic in the direction of the galactic anticenter. Its winter solstice date of 10,740 B.C.E. may be marking another important date, Earth's last mass extinction event.