Like anthropologists piecing together the human family tree, astronomers have found that a misfit “skeleton” of a star may link two different kinds of stellar remains. The mysterious object, called ...

When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it works. Are two different types of stars actually the same thing? Recent research shows that two kinds of ...

It isn’t a secret that humanity and everything around us is made of star stuff. But not all stars create elements equally. Sure, regular stars can create the basic elements: helium, carbon, neon, ...

The discovery of a youthful neutron star with an extreme magnetic field blurs the once clear divide between magnetars and pulsars. Neutron stars are extremely dense objects: they have masses similar ...

Magnetars are a subtype of pulsars, which are neutron stars—degenerate stars that failed to become black holes but instead became extremely dense bodies composed mostly of neutrons. Magnetars as well ...

Composite image of Swift J1818.0−1607, the youngest pulsar ever observed, as seen by the EPIC-pn camera on ESA’s XMM-Newton. The image combines observations in the following energy bands: 2–4 keV (red ...

Magnetars - stars with magnetic fields a thousand million million times stronger than Earth's - are formed when some of the biggest stars in the cosmos explode, says a team led by Australian ex-pat ...

Odd flashing pulses coming from a super-magnetic star called magnetars have astronomers glued to telescopes across the globe. Magnetars are particularly energetic versions of neutron stars, which are ...

In 1987, when Robert Duncan and Christopher Thompson first contemplated the existence of ultramagnetized neutron stars (later dubbed “magnetars”), they had a hard time convincing themselves that the ...

There’s a new addition to the pulsar family of celestial objects, astronomers announced last week. At approximately 700 years of age, PSR J1846-0258, in the Kes 75 supernova remnant, is a mere babe ...