New Evidence Supports Formation Theory for Rapidly Spinning Pulsars

Combining images taken by the Hubble Space Telescope, as well as data from radio observatories, astronomers from the European Space Agency have new understanding of a very unusual star system – a fast spinning pulsar and a giant red star. Although 90 of these “millisecond” pulsars have been discovered by astronomers, they haven’t figured out what gets them spinning so quickly. Perhaps through absorbing matter from another star, the pulsar is spun up by the transfer of energy that occurs when material is consumed.