Latest PSR B1620-26 b Stories

NASA -- The peculiar cosmic object known as 47 Tuc W (denoted by arrow in the X-ray image) is a double star system consisting of a normal star and a neutron star that makes a complete rotation every 2.35 milliseconds. Blink your eye and a superdense star the size of Manhattan Island will have rotated 25 or more times!New Chandra observations give the best information yet on why such neutron stars, called millisecond pulsars, are rotating so fast. The key, as in real estate, is location,...

NASA -- The past four weeks have been heady ones in the planet-finding world: Three teams of astronomers announced the discovery of 12 previously unknown worlds, bringing the total count of planets outside our solar system to 145. Just a decade ago, scientists knew of only the nine planets - those in our local solar system. In 1995, improved detection techniques produced the first solid evidence of a planet circling another star. A proliferation of discoveries followed, and now dozens of...