Researchers find a new way to weigh stars

London: Researchers have developed a new method for measuring the mass of pulsars -- highly magnetised rotating neutron stars formed from the remains of massive stars after they explode, says a new study.

Until now, scientists determined the mass of stars, planets and moons by studying their motion in relation to others nearby, using the gravitational pull between the two as the basis for their calculations.

Pulsars emit a rotating beam of electromagnetic radiation, which can be detected by telescopes when the beam sweeps past the Earth, like observing the beam of a lighthouse.

They are renowned for their incredibly stable rate of rotation, but young pulsars occasionally experience so-called 'glitches', where they are found to speed up for a very brief period of time.

The prevailing theory is that these glitches arise as a rapidly spinning super fluid within the star transfers its rotational energy to the star's crust, the component that is tracked by observations.

Wynn's team included Andersson, Espinoza and Danai Antonopoulou of the University of Amsterdam. They used new radio and X-ray data to develop a novel mathematical model that can be used to measure the mass of pulsars that glitch.

The idea relies on a detailed understanding of super fluidity.