Story thread · 2 reports / 1 sources

Rare pulsar unleashes 114 giant pulses in a single hour

phys.org · 7dShare

Astronomers have detected extreme, never-before-seen behavior from a rare kind of pulsar and stumbled on a surprising link to one of astronomy's biggest current mysteries. Using 174 hours of radio observations, researchers detected PSR J1227-4853, a rapidly spinning neutron star known as a "transitional millisecond pulsar," which unleashes hundreds of ultrashort, ultrapowerful "giant pulses." Their paper was published in The Astrophysical Journal on July 31.

First report: 'Quiet' pulsar suddenly reveals three glitches in 15 years of observations — phys.org, 8d