New research has revealed that different types of neutron stars, born when massive stars die, behave in a similar way. This might sound like a minor result, but in the grand scheme of things, it's a finding that further supports the idea that these extreme dead stars — so dense a tablespoon of one equals something like the weight of Mount Everest — could be behind mysterious blasts of radiation called Fast Radio Bursts (FRBs).
Millisecond-long bursts of radio emission FRBs seem to come from sources beyond the limits of the Milky Way, yet since their discovery in 2007, their origins have remained shrouded in mystery. There is one possible suspect, however: Highly magnetic neutron stars, or magnetars.
