[DeathAngelLST]

whoa

We have discovered a 716-Hz eclipsing binary radio pulsar in the globular cluster Terzan 5 using the Green Bank Telescope. It is the fastest-spinning neutron star ever found, breaking the 23-year-old record held by the 642-Hz pulsar B1937+21. The difficulty in detecting this pulsar, due to its very low flux density and high eclipse fraction (~40% of the orbit), suggests that even faster-spinning neutron stars exist. If the pulsar has a mass less than 2 M{odot}, then its radius is constrained by the spin rate to be <16 km. The short period of this pulsar also constrains models that suggest gravitational radiation, through an r-mode instability, limits the maximum spin frequency of neutron stars.

[Voodoo Rufus]

Pretty cool there. Amazing how fast they can spin and how small they can be.

[ilikepie]

Um.... In english please?

[JTanczos]

A partially dead(I think, dont exactly remember where pulsars come from) star emits light/energy from a side while spinning. Similar to the old style lights on police cars. Every full rotation is 1hz so this star is spinning 716 times a second. Pretty damn fast!

JT

[mage_x]

Originally Posted by ilikepie

Um.... In english please?

http://www.astro.umd.edu/~miller/nstar.html#basics