Satellites record star transition
From Times Staff and Wire Reports
Researchers using orbiting satellites have for the first time observed a pulsar that violently transformed into a magnetar, then changed back again, they reported in Friday’s journal Science. Pulsars spin rapidly and emit powerful bursts of radio waves; magnetars spin slowly and emit unusually strong bursts of X-rays. The two types were thought to be different stages in the evolution of stars, but researchers had not previously observed the transformation.
