Astronomers uncover 10 new dead star 'Monsters' in Milky Way; why scientists call it an exciting discovery

An illustration depicting ten rapidly spinning dead star pulsars in Terzan 5. (US NSF, AUI, NSF NRAO, S. Dagnello)

Astronomers have uncovered ten mysterious neutron stars near the Milky Way's core, all spinning rapidly and classified as "pulsars." These enigmatic stars, nestled in a dense globular cluster 18,000 light-years away, could possess bizarre and twisted forms due to their unique environment.

Spider Pulsars and Vampire Stars
Among the discoveries are several "spider pulsars" that destroy stars with plasma webs and a rapidly spinning "vampire star" that feeds on its companion stars. Pulsars are neutron stars that can spin up to 700 times per second, emitting beams of radiation from their poles that sweep across space like a lighthouse. These newly discovered pulsars are located in the globular cluster Terzan 5, home to hundreds of thousands of stars aged between 12 billion and 4.5 billion years.

Terzan 5: A Pulsar Hotspot
Astronomers already knew of 39 pulsars in Terzan 5, one of the most crowded regions in the Milky Way. "It's very unusual to find exotic new pulsars," said Scott Ransom, a scientist with the U.S. National Science Foundation National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NSF NRAO). "But what’s really exciting is the wide variety of such weirdos in a single cluster."

Tools and Techniques
Ransom and his colleagues discovered the pulsars using the Green Bank Telescope and the MeerKAT Telescope. By tracking the neutron stars' locations and timing their rotations with MeerKAT, and comparing this data to 20 years of Terzan 5 observations from the Green Bank Telescope, they uncovered the strange characteristics of these newly found stars.

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Rare Double Neutron-Star Binary
Among the discoveries are two neutron stars in an incredibly rare double neutron-star binary. While around 3,600 pulsars have been discovered in the Milky Way, only 20 are double neutron-star binaries. In these systems, one neutron star pulls material from the other like a cosmic vampire, increasing its spin to create a "millisecond pulsar" that can spin hundreds of times per second. The newly found pair set a record, appearing to spin faster than 716 rotations per second, the speed of the current record holder, PSR J1748−2446ad, also located in Terzan 5.

Rare Spider Pulsars
The team also discovered three new rare spider pulsars. These pulsars are classified as either "Redbacks" or "Black Widows," depending on the nature of the companion star they consume. Both types waste away companion stars that come too close with a "web" of high-energy radiation. Redback spider pulsars prey on companion stars with masses between 10% and 50% of the sun's mass, while Black Widow spider pulsars ravage smaller stars with less than 5% of the sun's mass.

The discovery of these fearsome neutron stars could help astronomers better understand pulsars and the effects of evolving in a globular cluster. The researchers are already hoping to discover more of these cosmic oddities in Terzan 5, enlisting the help of citizen scientists for future discoveries.

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