First gamma-ray pulsar found outside Milky Way is the most energetic yet
DOI: 10.1063/PT.5.029372
Ars Technica : Researchers using the Fermi Gamma-Ray Space Telescope have spotted the first gamma-ray pulsar outside our galaxy. It is in the Large Magellanic Cloud, one of the Milky Way’s satellite galaxies. Gamma-ray pulsars are the overly energetic versions of pulsars—rapidly spinning neutron stars—which normally emit radiation in the radio wavelengths. The high energy of gamma rays makes it hard to localize their source, but, with enough time, Fermi was able to track the source of the gamma-ray pulses to the Tarantula Nebula. That nebula was already known to be home to a few pulsars, so the Fermi team compared the timing of the gamma-ray pulses with pulses in other wavelengths. That let them identify PSR J0540–6919, the remnants of an 1100-year-old supernova, as the source.
