BEIJING, Aug. 27 (Xinhua) -- Scientists have discovered what might be the main factor slowing down the rotation speed of the mysterious pulsars.
The Chinese-led research provides important clues to the spin-down mechanism and the magnetic field structure of pulsars, highly magnetized neutron stars born from supernova explosions of massive stars, and the densest stars known to exist.
The international team led by Ge Mingyu and Lu Fangjun, of the Institute of High Energy Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, found the pulsar wind nebula (PWN) surrounding pulsar B0540-69, located in the Large Magellanic Cloud, a dwarf galaxy neighboring our Milky Way, brightened gradually after the star saw a sudden spin-down rate.
The discovery was published in the Nature Astronomy online on Monday.
