Pulsars are the products of colossal star explosions. When a star about ten times the size of our Sun dies, it undergoes an ejection of its “mantle” in a great supernova explosion, leaving the highly magnetized and compressed nucleus of the star behind. The nucleus left behind may become what you see above—a pulsar; a rotating neutron star.
Although pulsars are only about the size of a city, pulsars are incredibly dense, possibly having as much material as our Sun. Pulsars don’t actually “pulse”, rather, they appear to pulse due to what is known as the “lighthouse effect”. Huge beams of radiation are ejected from the magnetic axis of the pulsar. These glaring emissions are only visible to us when they are pointed straight at the earth, giving the pulsar an appearance of pulsation.
One of the most impressive facts about pulsars is that, because of their incredible density, their rotational periods are extremely swift and extremely precise. Most pulsar rotational periods are anywhere from a few seconds to a few milliseconds!
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