Astronomers have discovered an extraordinary celestial system containing a runaway pulsar fleeing the scene of a massive stellar supernova explosion. What makes this system even more spectacular is the fact that it should be "forbidden" in the empty region of the Milky Way in which it was found.
The system, given the name "Calvera" after the villain in the 1960 Western "The Magnificent Seven," exists around 6,500 light-years above the densely populated plane of the Milky Way. In this region, stellar populations are sparse, and stars with the necessary mass needed to go supernova and to birth a neutron star at the heart of a pulsar should be vanishingly rare.
