Scientists have detected what they believe to be a neutron star spinning at an unprecedentedly slow rate -- slower than any of the more than 3,000 radio emitting neutron stars measured to date.
Neutron stars -- the ultra-dense remains of a dead star -- typically rotate at mind-bendingly fast speeds, taking just seconds or even a fraction of a second to fully spin on their axis.
At the end of their life, large stars use up all their fuel and explode in a spectacular blast called a supernova. What remains is a stellar remnant called a neutron star, made up of trillions of neutrons packed into a ball so dense that its mass is 1.4 times that of the Sun is packed into a radius of just 10km.
The findings could make scientists reconsider their decades-old understanding of neutron stars or white dwarfs; how they emit radio waves and what their populations are like in our Milky Way galaxy. The research team were simultaneously monitoring a source of gamma rays and seeking a fast radio burst when they spotted the object slowly flashing in the data.
Black Holes Space Telescopes Nebulae Astronomy Space Exploration Galaxies Astrophysics
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