Live science
By Robert Lea
October 5, 2023
Astronomers have spotted the highest-energy outburst of light from a pulsar ever seen. The discovery could indicate new physics around these incredibly dense, rapidly spinning dead stars.
The team, including scientists from France’s National Center of Scientific Research (CNRS), made observations of the Vela pulsar — which, at 1,000 light-years from Earth, is one of the closest pulsars ever detected — with the four telescopes that make up the gamma-ray-hunting High Energy Stereoscopic System (HESS).