Saturday, January 26, 2013

Weird Spinning Star Defies Explanation

An artist's illustration of the pulsar PSR B0943+10, a spinning star 3,000 light-years from Earth that shifts between beaming out X-rays and radio waves.  

 

Scientists have discovered a puzzling spinning star that is spontaneously switching between two very different personalities, flipping between emitting strong X-rays and emitting intense radio waves.

While radio frequencies are known to vary as the star changes personalities, the newfound star is the first time example of variability in X-rays as well. The star, called a pulsar because it appears to pulse, has astronomers perplexed.

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