Most Pulsars Much Older Than Previously Thought

Most pulsars--spinning, super-dense neutron stars that emit powerful beams of radio waves and light--are much older than researchers previously believed, a discovery that challenges the standard theory about how pulsar signals are produced. Astronomers from MIT and the National Radio Astronomy Observatory have tracked a pulsar thought to be 16,000 years old since 1993. They report in today’s Nature that it is moving much more slowly than predicted, indicating it is at least 40,000 years old and perhaps as old as 170,000 years. An image can be seen at https://www.aoc.nrao.edu/pr/duck.html.

--Compiled by Times medical writer Thomas H. Maugh II