X-ray Observations of Pulsars Neutron stars also have very intense magnetic fields , about 1,000,000,000,000 times stronger than Earth's. These electrons travel outward from the neutron star, until they reach the point at which they would be forced to travel faster than the speed of light to still co-rotate with the star. External viewers see these pulses of radiation whenever the magnetic pole is visible. The pulses come at the same rate as the rotation of the neutron star, and, thus, appear periodic. A few years after the discovery of pulsars by radio astronomers, the Crab and Vela pulsars were detected at gamma-ray energies.
Pulsars are simple in theory, but complex in reality.
These rapidly rotating neutron stars are modeled as spinning magnets. This simple view hides the enormous complexity of these interesting objects. These particles are ultimately responsible for the gamma-ray emission seen from pulsars. While there are nearly 600 pulsars known through radio detections, only seven have been detected in the light of gamma-rays. Gamma-ray telescopes preferentially detect young, nearby pulsars.