After searching since the 1960s, astronomers have finally found the hypothesised white dwarf pulsar.
Artistic impression of AR Scorpii.
The first pulsar was discovered in 1967. It’s a type of star that rotates, sending out beams of electromagnetic radiation. As it rotates, it flashes brightly like a lighthouse in a pulsing rhythm, hence its name. Since that 1967 discovery, all pulsars in the sky have been neutron stars , the last, extremely dense stages of a dying star after supernova, before it collapses into a black hole. However, researchers hypothesised that white dwarfs — dying stars not massive enough to become neutron stars — could also become pulsars.
