Orpington Astronomical Society

Astronomy => In the Media... => Topic started by: mickw on Jan 07, 2010, 09:29:52

Title: Strange Spinning Stars Could Help Prove Einstein Prediction
Post by: mickw on Jan 07, 2010, 09:29:52
A newly discovered trove of strange spinning stars in our galaxy could help find evidence for Einstein's prediction of gravitational waves.

The peculiar stars are very dense, strongly magnetic stars called millisecond pulsars, which rotate hundreds of times per second — faster than a kitchen blender. Seventeen of these objects were recently identified with help from NASA's Fermi space telescope, which scans the skies in high-energy gamma-ray light.

More:   http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/100105-fermi-pulsars.html  (http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/100105-fermi-pulsars.html)