Using a NASA X-ray telescope mounted on the International Space Station (ISS), astronomers have weighed a rapidly spinning dead star that signifies the heart of the closest millisecond pulsar to Earth.
Like all neutron stars, pulsars are born when massive stars die, but what really sets millisecond pulsars apart is the fact that they spin hundreds of times per second. As they do this, beams of radiation and matter blast out of the poles of these dead stars and sweep across the universe, making pulsars akin to powerful "cosmic lighthouses."
