Dead stars may masquerade as ingenues

When it comes to lying about their ages, certain stars are masters of spin. The stellar deception could throw into disarray theories describing some of the densest objects in the universe.

Radio image of the pulsar B1757-24 (arrow) fleeing its parent supernova. Gaensler and Frail

That’s the lesson two astronomers say they’ve learned from studying a seemingly young pulsar, the rapidly rotating corpse of a massive star.