Pulsars
LIGO Fails to Find Continuous Gravitational Waves From Pulsars
In February 2016, scientists working for the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) made history by announcing the first-ever detection of…
The Strange Pulsar at the Center of the Crab Nebula
Thanks to the Hubble Space Telescope, we all have a vivid image of the Crab Nebula emblazoned in our mind's…
A Close Pulsar Measures 11.4 km Across
When massive stars detonate as supernovae, they leave often behind a pulsar. These fast rotating stellar corpses have fascinated scientists…
Spider Pulsars are Tearing Apart Stars in the Omega Cluster
Pulsars are extreme objects. They're what's left over when a massive star collapses on itself and explodes as a supernova.…
A Pulsar Suddenly Threw Out Radiation 200 Times More Energetic
Pulsars are so dependable you could set your watch to them, sometimes turning hundreds of times a second with incredible…
Magnetar Glitches, Fast Radio Bursts, And…Asteroids???
Recently astronomers have been able to associate two seemingly unrelated phenomena: an explosive event known as a fast radio burst…
Astronomers Find the Fastest Spider Pulsar, Filling in the Missing Link in Their Evolution
Pulsars are rapidly spinning neutron stars which release blasts of radio waves with atomic clocklike accuracy. The fastest can be…
Pulsars Could Help Map the Black Hole at the Center of the Milky Way
The BlackHoleCam project, part of the Event Horizon Telescope consortium, will use the powerful EHT array to search for pulsars…
The Heaviest Neutron Star Ever Seen Got There by Feasting on its Companion
Life's not too good if you're the companion of a black widow. Here on Earth, spiders by that name feast…
A Pulsar and Star are Orbiting Each Other Every 62 Minutes. The Fastest “Black Widow” Binary Ever Seen
Caption: An illustrated view of a black widow pulsar and its stellar companion. The pulsar’s gamma-ray emissions (magenta) strongly heat…