Strange Spinning Star Stumps Astronomers
Friday, May 16, 2008 - 09:14
in Astronomy & Space
Astronomers have discovered a speedy spinning pulsar in an elongated orbit around an apparent Sun-like star, a combination never seen before, and one that has them puzzled about how the strange system developed. The obese oddball of a star has left astronomers wondering how it could have formed. The star is a pulsar -- a compact, rapidly spinning star -- called J1903+0327. It lies 20,000 light-years away spinning at a rate of 465 revolutions per second -- the fifth fastest-spinning pulsar known in our Galaxy.