New Technique Reveals Ages of Millisecond Pulsars

Isolated pulsars gradually slow their spins, but the opposite happens if the pulsar is joined by a companion star as part of a binary system. Gas accreted from the star can force the pulsar to spin faster, resulting in rotation periods of just a few milliseconds. Credit: NASA/Dana Berry.
Astronomers have developed a new technique to accurately determine the ages of millisecond pulsars, the fastest-spinning stars in the universe. The standard method for estimating pulsar ages is known to yield unreliable results, especially for the fast-spinning millisecond pulsars, said Bülent Kiziltan, a graduate student in astronomy and astrophysics at University of California Sant a Cruz. “An accurate determination of pulsar ages is of fundamental importance, because it has ramifications for understanding the formation and evolution of pulsars, the physics of neutron stars, and other areas,” he said.
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