A Star Is Born

A star is born.....well; about twenty-five million years ago; pretty recent in the life of a star! Astomoners at NASA noticed gamma rays pulsing at 183.8 times a second, with a spin period of 5.44 milliseconds. Actually, the object was "discovered" in the 1990's; we just didn't know about it's "gamma ray brightness" until now. This pulsar is about 27,000 light years away from us. The reason this discovery caught my attention is because it has not been taught, so far, that an object with a spin of 5.44 milliseconds would be so bright, or have the magnestism this object apparently has. We are realizing, at long last, that we do not know everything. At least most of us do not insist upon seeing the world and the sky the same way the Church saw the world and the sky when Galileo attempted to introduce new ideas! We will still, however; have to update the physics we are teaching today. Below is an illustration I snagged from Nasa.

                                                                          J1823-2021A