The brightest, furthest pulsar in the Universe / Space Science / Our Activities / ESA
http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Space_Science/The_brightest_furthest_pulsar_in_the_Universe
ESA’s XMM-Newton has found a pulsar – the spinning remains of a once-massive star – that is a thousand times brighter than previously thought possible.
The pulsar is also the most distant of its kind ever detected, with its light travelling 50 million light-years before being detected by XMM-Newton.
Pulsars are spinning, magnetised neutron stars that sweep regular pulses of radiation in two symmetrical beams across the cosmos. If suitably aligned
with Earth these beams are like a lighthouse beacon appearing to flash on and off as it rotates. They were once massive stars that exploded as a powerful
supernova at the end of their natural life, before becoming small and extraordinarily dense stellar corpses.
This X-ray source is the most luminous of its type detected to date: it is 10 times brighter than the previous record holder. In one second it emits
the same amount of energy released by our Sun in 3.5 years. XMM-Newton observed the object several times in the last 13 years, with the discovery a result
of a systematic search for pulsars in the data archive – its 1.13 s periodic pulses giving it away.
The signal was also identified in NASA’s Nustar archive data, providing additional information.
