Astronomers have discovered that radiation emitted by a rapidly spinning neutron star, or "pulsar," is dominated by the impact of its powerful particle winds — and not by the material it strips from a companion star.
The pulsar in question is PSR J1023+0038 (J1023), which sits in a binary system located 4,500 light-years away from Earth. This binary consists of a "dead star," or neutron star that spins around 600 times a second, as well as a low-mass star upon which the neutron star "feeds."
