pulsars

Until now, scientists have determined the mass of stars, planets, and moons by studying their motion in relation to others nearby, using the gravitational pull between the two as the basis for their calculations.

Neutron stars – the dead stellar remnants of old, burned-out stars – are some of the most extreme objects in the universe.

A fast-moving pulsar appears to have punched a hole in a disk of gas around its companion star and to have launched a fragment of the disk outward at a speed of about 40 million miles per hour.

New observations of a pulsar are challenging all existing theories about these stars’ dynamics.