'Glitch’ in pulsar ‘glitch’ theory
Researchers have called in to question a 40 year-old theory explaining the periodic speeding up or ‘glitching’ of pulsars. A pulsar is a highly magnetized rotating neutron star formed from the remains of a supernova. It emits a rotating beam of electromagnetic radiation, which can be detected by powerful telescopes when it sweeps past the Earth, rather like observing the beam of a lighthouse from a ship at sea. Pulsars rotate at extremely stable speeds, but occasionally they speed up in brief events described as ‘glitches’ or ‘spin-ups’. The prevailing theory is that these events arise as a rapidly spinning superfluid within the star transfers rotational energy to the star’s crust, the component that is tracked by observations. However, academics have used a mathematical model to disprove this.