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Pulsars are superdense neutron stars that form from massive supernovae. They can only be found when their electromagnetic beams are directed directly to the Earth, like a nuclear-powered lighthouse. Pulsars were found to be running as fast as 1.6 milliseconds, or 38,500 rpm. They capture the angular momentum of the massive stars that formed them, but are a fraction of the size. This translates into a speed of rotation, in the same way that figure skaters spin faster when they hug each other.
J0002, located about 6,500 light years from Cassiopeia, is not as fast. However, it is running at a healthy speed of 8.7 times per second, each time producing a burst of gamma rays as seen from Earth. The Einstein @ Home astronomers found it in 2017, while they were examining gamma ray data with the help of computer cycles borrowed from volunteers. The photo above is composed of old images from the DRAO observatory and new VLA observations. The latter shows the tail of the orange pulsar and the curved edge of the rest of the supernova.
Scientists do not know why J0002 moves faster than 99% of measured pulsars. According to one theory, the collapsing star that formed it had regions of dense matter that fired the newly formed neutron star as a "gravitational tug". Shortly after its formation, the supernova exceeded the pulsar, but interstellar gas eventually slowed the relatively sparse debris. During this time, the pulsar was acting like a cannonball, piercing the remains and escaping them about 5,000 years after the explosion.
Pulsar J0002 will eventually escape our galaxy. In other words, you would not want to bother you – such objects are very small (12 miles on average), but can weigh twice as much as our sun. And at 2.5 million MPH, he could travel from Earth to the Moon in just six minutes. At some point, the temperature could be such that it would no longer be possible to detect it. Fortunately, thanks to the integrated arrow, we will always know exactly where it is going.
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