Astronomers Uncover A ‘Transformer’ Pulsar

An international team of scientists using a fleet of orbiting X-ray telescopes, including NASA’s Swift and Chandra X-ray Observatory, has discovered a millisecond pulsar with a dual identity. In a feat that has never before been observed, the star readily shifts back and forth between two mutually exclusive styles of pulsed emission — one in X-rays, the other in radio.

The discovery, say scientists, represents a long-sought intermediate phase in the life of these powerful objects.

“This transitional object took us decades to find, and it provides us with a unique opportunity to observe a pulsar’s intense magnetic field in action,” said Sergio Campana, an astronomer at Brera Observatory in Merate, Italy, and a co-author of a paper on the object that appears in the Sept. 26 issue of the journal Nature.

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