Researchers have used raw computing power to hunt down a 'black widow' pulsar that is evaporating its companion star.Pulsars are stellar remnants that emit lighthouse-like beams of radiation. They often emit gamma rays, but can usually be spotted only if they also emit easier-to-detect radio waves. However, Holger Pletsch of the Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics in Hannover, Germany, and his colleagues found the current pulsar (pictured; circled) through a blind search of data from the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope.
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