Andrew Melatos

A pulsar is a dead star that spins and emits radio pulses like a lighthouse. If a pulsar has a companion, they whirl around a common center of gravity.

The Sun constantly flares up like a campfire when you toss in more kindling. Big flares are obvious at once, but weak ones easily get lost in the overall glow. The neural network was taught to pick out even barely noticeable bursts from the stream of data that satellites send every second. From 2018 to August 2025, the algorithm found 111,580 flares.

Gas falls onto a neutron star — the ultra-dense remnant of an exploded star. This gas accumulates at the magnetic poles and forms a mountain. But a mountain on a neutron star is not like one on Earth: it is held not by rock but by magnetic field lines, like iron filings on a magnet. When there is too much gas, the mountain begins to break apart.