Scientists suspect that a rapidly spinning, highly magnetic neutron star, or "pulsar," dwells at the heart of the Milky Way. The discovery could change our understanding of how many of these extreme dead stars dwell close to our galaxy's central supermassive black hole, Sagittarius A* (Sgr A*).
Like all neutron stars, pulsars are born when stars with masses around that of the sun reach the end of their fuel for nuclear fusion and can no longer support themselves against gravitational collapse. Though the region of the Milky Way called the Galactic Center is expected to be replete with pulsars, spotting them is challenging because of how extreme, turbulent, and densely packed the heart of our galaxy is. However, radio waves aren't obscured by this region to the same extent that visible light and other forms of electromagnetic radiation are.
