In the image above, the record-breaking pulsar identified as NGC 5907 X-1 is in the spiral galaxy NGC 5907, which is also known as the Knife Edge Galaxy or Splinter Galaxy. The image comprises X-ray emission data (blue/white) from ESA’s XMM-Newton space telescope and NASA’s Chandra X-ray observatory, and optical data from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (galaxy and foreground stars).

(ESA/XMM-Newton; NASA/Chandra and SDSS)

At a Glance

A pulsar identified as NGC 5907 X-1 is the brightest, most furthest of its kind yet.The star's spin rate is 1.13 seconds.

The spinning remains of a once-massive star has been spotted shining a thousand times brighter than ever thought possible thanks to the European Space Agency’s XMM-Newton space rocket.

The dazzling pulsar, identified as NGC 5907 X-1, is also the most distant of its kind and its light traveled 50 million light-years , according to a release from ESA.

"The discovery of this very unusual object, by far the most extreme ever discovered in terms of distance, luminosity and rate of increase of its rotation frequency, sets a new record for XMM-Newton, and is changing our ideas of how such objects really 'work,'" ESA XMM-Newton project scientist Norbert Schartel said in the release.

A pulsar is a neutron star that emanates beams of radiation , according to NASA. These stars were formerly massive and, after exploding with a powerful supernova at the end of their natural life, become small and dense stellar corpses. When properly aligned with the Earth, they release beams that act like a lighthouse beacon and appear to flash on and off as the pulsar rotates.

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NGC 5907 X-1 has been observed several times in the past 13 years and a systematic search for pulsars picked up on its rapid period pulses of 1.13 seconds, states the release. Researchers found it is 10 times brighter than the previous record-holder, and that in one second, it produces the same amount of energy that the sun releases in 3.5 years.

“Before, it was believed that only black holes at least 10 times more massive than our Sun feeding off their stellar companions could achieve such extraordinary luminosities, but the rapid and regular pulsations of this source are the fingerprints of neutron stars and clearly distinguish them from black holes,” lead author Gian Luca Israel said in the release.

The data also revealed the spin rate of the pulsar has changed over time from 1.43 seconds per rotation in 2003 to 1.13 seconds in 2014. This same relative acceleration in Earth’s rotation would shorten a day by five hours within the same time span.

While it isn’t uncommon for a neutron star’s rotation rate to change, the high rate of change in this instance is likely due to the object's rapidly consumption of mass from a companion.

“This object is really challenging our current understanding of the 'accretion' process for high-luminosity stars,” said Israel. “It is 1,000 times more luminous than the maximum thought possible for an accreting neutron star, so something else is needed in our models in order to account for the enormous amount of energy released by the object.”

The researchers believe there is a complex magnetic field near the pulsar’s surface that is strong enough to create buildup on the star’s surface while still allowing it to emanate high luminosity.

NGC 5907 X-1 resides in the spiral galaxy NGC 5907, which is also known as the Knife Edge Galaxy or the Splinter Galaxy, also according to ESA.

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