Looking for Pulsars in the Fast Lane Scientists are looking for bizarre, short-lived, powerhouse stars that burst with some of the brightest energy in the universe. Using AXAF, they hope to find some of the few that may exist. Pulsars are pulsing neutron stars, discovered by radio astronomers in 1967 and since observed in virtually every part of the electromagnetic spectrum. The gas and radiation pressures that supported the outer layers of the star disappear, and gravity drives everything inward. The magnetic field is so intense that it can wrinkle the neutron star crust.
Short life is the price of being a magnetar.
The SGR phase lasts only 10,000 years, and may be followed by the AXP phase for another 10,000 years or so. The implication of such short lives is that SGRs and AXPs are quite common, but that at any instant only a few will be young enough to be active. Until recently, astronomers did not link the SGR and AXP classes. They have have an awkward spectrum and they also have a very limited period range which says there's something very special going on. X-ray pulsars have periods ranging from less than a tenth of a second to thousands of seconds.