A lighthouse doesn't flash steadily but in short, bright pulses. The neutron star in the system 4U 1323-62 is such a lighthouse in the X-ray range. It pulls gas from a companion star, and when enough material accumulates on its surface, a thermonuclear explosion occurs — an X-ray burst.
Astronomers studied 2024 data from two space observatories — XMM-Newton and NuSTAR. They found nine X-ray bursts, one of which turned out to be double: first a faint precursor, then the main explosion. This happens rarely. In the main burst of this pair, periodic brightness oscillations were noticed, as if the star is blinking 611.5 times per second. This closely resembles the rotation of a neutron star: a hot spot on its surface alternately comes into and goes out of view.
But the confidence in the discovery is not yet absolute. The statistical significance of the signal is about 2.4–3 sigma — far below the 5-sigma threshold accepted in astronomy. So scientists speak of a "possible detection" rather than a firm result. If the signal is confirmed, it would mean that the neutron star in 4U 1323-62 completes a full rotation in just 1.635 milliseconds — faster than a kitchen blender.
If you were standing on the surface of such a neutron star, its rotation would carry you at about 10% of the speed of light — roughly 30,000 kilometers per second.
In Robert Forward's novel "Dragon's Egg," life on the surface of a neutron star is described, where due to the enormous gravity and rapid rotation, time flows differently, and creatures evolve within minutes.