Pulsars

                                     Pulsars 

The two streaks of light opposite of each other are the North and South sides of
the pulsar, which are emitting radioactive waves.

    Pulsars are formed when stars die down and are in a process called supernova. As the star collapses, the core begins to compact all of the neutrons in the star onto itself because of its super strong gravitational pull. The cluster begins to spin faster and faster. It's like an ice skater pulling their arms in so that they can spin faster. After this process, the cluster becomes a rapidly spinning ball of neutrons covered by an iron shell. The shell would be smoothed out because of the strong gravitational pull of the core. This creates a pulsar. Pulsars are smaller than the original old star but they weigh 1.4 times more because of the extreme gravity pulling things inward, making things on the pulsar heavier than they actually are. Pulsars are basically neutron stars that spin quickly and has a super strong magnetic field.
     Pulsars emit every kind of wave in the electromagnetic spectrum. The first pulsar found was emitting radio waves. Spinning at an incredible speed, the waves were like pulsing into the air. ("Puls"ars) Because of its strong magnetic field, the waves would pulse out in the North and South sides of the star. The waves only emit on the North and South sides because of magnetic fields having ends on the two sides. The pulsing happens every second on each pulsar. Try imaging a pulsar emitting gamma rays and being close to Earth. We would be super lucky if the North and South didn't face our direction!