This animation illustrates how an old pulsar in a binary system can be reactivated -- and sped up to a millisecond spin -- by accreting gas from its companion star. A pulsar is a rapidly rotating neutron star that emits pulses of radiation (such as X-rays and radio waves) at regular intervals. A millisecond pulsar is one with a rotational period between 1 and 10 milliseconds, or from 60,000 to 6,000 revolutions per minute. Pulsars form in supernova explosions, but even newborn pulsars don't spin at millisecond speeds, and they gradually slow down with age. If, however, a pulsar is a member of a binary system with a normal star, gas transferred from the companion can spin up an old, slow pulsar to the millisecond range. For more information, go to http://www.nasa.gov/content/goddard/astronomers-uncover-a-transformer-pulsar This video is public domain and can be downloaded at: http://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/vis/a010000/a010100/a010144/

• published: 25 Sep 2013
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