This 'Cannonball' Pulsar is Racing at Escape Speed Across the Milky Way

Astronomers discovered a pulsar, a kind of zombie star, racing across the galaxy so quickly that it could get from the Earth to the moon in six minutes flat. The dead star has a tail pointing back toward the remnant of a supernova that exploded 10,000 years ago. Astronomers suspected this might have provided the kick that sent the pulsar speeding off, but had to wait for 10 years of telescope data to make their case convincing. A pulsar is the rapidly spinning neutron star left over after

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