Spinning Pulsar Smashes Record Terzan 5ad (formally known as PSR
J17482446ad) belongs to a class known as millisecond pulsars.
These bizarre objects are neutron stars (the ultradense cores of
massive stars) that take only a few thousandths of a second to
complete one rotation. Most known pulsars have rotation periods
ranging from a few times per second to a few times per minute,
and these rates slow down over time as pulsars emit winds of
gas, which act to brake the object's spin. Millisecond pulsars,
on the other hard, are literally "spun up" as they accrete
material from a binary companion star. This matter falls onto
the pulsar's equator, transferring some of its orbital energy to
the pulsar's rotation rate. Using the 100-meter Green Bank
Telescope in West Virginia, a team led by Scott Ransom (National
Radio Astronomy Observatory) targeted the globular cluster
Terzan 5 for millisecond pulsars. This cluster is about 28,000
light-years from Earth in the constellation Sagittarius. Ransom
and his colleagues re