Illustration depicts the formation of multiple whirlpools in a sodium gas cloud.
Scientists who cooled the cloud and made it spin created the whirlpools in a Massachusetts Institute of Technology laboratory, as part of NASA-funded research. This process is similar to a phenomenon called starquakes that appear as glitches in the rotation of pulsars in space. This research may teach scientists more about the history of our universe and the stars within it and may eventually lead to vast improvements in highly precise atomic clocks. The laboratory demonstration is related to puzzling glitches observed by astronomers in the otherwise smooth, rapid rotation of pulsars. A pulsar is a type of neutron star, a remnant of a dying star and one of the densest objects in the universe.