Pulsar. Composite image showing a pulsar (pink) located in the Messier 82 galaxy 12 million light-years away. A pulsar is a type of neutron star, the

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Pulsar. Composite image showing a pulsar (pink) located in the Messier 82 galaxy 12 million light-years away. A pulsar is a type of neutron star, the leftover core of a star that exploded in a supernova. These dead stars send out rotating beams of radiation that sweep past Earth like lighthouse beams, in this case every seconds. It was originally thought to be a massive black hole, but its X-ray emissions revealed it as a pulsar, pulsing with the energy of about 10 million suns. Image data from NASA's Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array, (NuSTAR), Chandra X-ray Observatory and Swift satellite.

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Size: 2960px × 2960px
Photo credit: © NASA/JPL-Caltech/SAO/NOAO/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No

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