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PIA21085: Pulsar Artist's Concept
This artist's concept shows a pulsar, which is like a lighthouse, as its light appears in regular pulses as it rotates. Pulsars are dense remnants of exploded stars, and are part of a class of objects called neutron stars.
 Mission:  SWIFT 
 Product Size:  3840 x 2160 pixels (w x h) 
 Produced By:  JPL 
 Full-Res TIFF:  PIA21085.tif (7.64 MB)
 Full-Res JPEG:  PIA21085.jpg (177.3 kB)  

Click on the image above to download a moderately sized image in JPEG format (possibly reduced in size from original)

Original Caption Released with Image:

This artist's concept shows a pulsar, which is like a lighthouse, as its light appears in regular pulses as it rotates. Pulsars are dense remnants of exploded stars, and are part of a class of objects called neutron stars.

Magnetars are different kinds of neutron stars -- they have violent, high-energy outbursts of X-ray and gamma ray light. A mysterious object called PSR J1119-6127 has been seen behaving as both a pulsar and a magnetar, suggesting that it could be a "missing link" between these objects.

Image Credit:
NASA/JPL-Caltech

Image Addition Date:
2017-01-06