By Ruth Bennett
There’s a new addition to the pulsar family of celestial objects, astronomers announced last week.
At approximately 700 years of age, PSR J1846-0258, in the Kes 75 supernova remnant, is a mere babe among pulsars. Astronomers are now asking whether the youngster is a regular pulsar or a more exotic magnetar.
Pulsars are offspring of the events surrounding a star’s demise. In the death throes of a supernova, some stars release massive amounts of energy in a half-second of collapse, ejecting most of their mass.