SCIENTISTS SPOT MAGNETARS' MISSING LINK

These magnetic stars might be more like pulsars than originally suspected

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Researchers have apparently found a ‘missing link’ between two types of pulsars. Pulsars are fast-spinning neutron stars, the superdense, collapsed cores left over from the explosive deaths of massive stars. Pulsars emit beams of radiation from their poles that appear to pulse when they’re observed from Earth, hence the name. Pulsars don’t actually pulse, though – that’s an effect of their rotation.