Most pulsars rotate once every couple of seconds, but one pulsar completes a revolution just once every 76 seconds
Space
30 May 2022
Artist’s impression of a pulsar Shutterstock/NASA images
A pulsar that is rotating just once every 76 seconds raises questions about how long these star remnants can remain active.
When a giant star explodes as a supernova, it can leave behind a dense core in the form of a neutron star. If this core is highly magnetised and spinning rapidly, it can send out regular pulses of radio emissions, and is known as a pulsar.
Manisha Caleb at the University of Manchester, UK, and her colleagues have discovered a particularly odd pulsar called …