Dead Stars

Pulsars (dead stars) are small and extremely dense stellar objects left behind after massive stars explode. They spin at staggering speeds, generating huge gravity fields and emitting strong beams of radio waves from their magnetic poles which can be picked up by radio-telescopes on Earth (not nanny cams). There are 1,700 known pulsars in our galaxy but only one binary-pulsar system was discovered in 2003. It comprises two pulsars locked into close orbit around each other, so close they could fit within the Sun. Einstein predicted that an object’s spin axis should slowly change direction as the pulsar orbits around its companion. This theory of general relativity, according to scientists, holds up because of the strong gravitational field and one of the two pulsars was indeed precessing (an elegant motion when the spin axis slowly changes direction).

Popularity: 16% [?]