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In a distant galaxy, after a star explosion, astronomers may be witnessing the birth of a pulsar — a cosmic lighthouse, possibly for the first time.
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When a massive star dies, it explodes as a supernova (a term coined by Fritz Zwicky). At its core remains a city-sized sphere crushed to unimaginable density — a neutron star. If it spins rapidly, it emits two narrow beams of radiation, like a lighthouse.
A few years after the SN 2012au explosion in a distant spiral galaxy, astronomers noticed a strengthening radio signal. A network of radio telescopes, working as one giant ear, revealed that the source is nearly stationary and very small. Its speed is less than a third of the speed of light, typical for a young pulsar, not for ejecta in cosmic dust clouds.
If confirmed, this is the first radio pulsar in another galaxy caught shortly after birth. By studying it, we’ll see how these cosmic lighthouses gain strength. An amazing fact: a pulsar’s rotational energy is so stable that it can be used to calibrate atomic clocks — even millions of years later.
The first radio pulsar was discovered in 1967 by Jocelyn Bell Burnell. The regular signals were initially jokingly called “little green men.”
A neutron star is one of the densest known objects: a mass greater than the Sun’s packed into a sphere about 20 kilometers across. A teaspoon of its material would weigh billions of tons.