The fastest-spinning neutron star ever found has been discovered in a crowded star cluster near the centre of the Milky Way, a new study reveals.
The star rotates 716 times per second [2,577,600 per min] – faster than some theories predict is possible – and therefore may force researchers to revise their models.
Neutron stars form when a massive star explodes at the end of its life and leaves behind a super-dense, spinning ball of neutrons. These stellar corpses emit intense beams of radio waves from their poles and are called pulsars.
Most pulsars rotate just a few times per second, but some spin hundreds of times faster. These so-called millisecond pulsars whip around so quickly because they are thought to have stripped mass – and angular momentum – from companion stars at some point in their histories.
Astronomers led by Jason Hessels of McGill University in Montreal, Canada, used the 100-metre Green Bank Telescope in West Virginia, US, to clock the newly discovered pulsar at 716 rotations per second, or 716 hertz. The previous record holder, which spins at 642 Hz, was discovered in 1982. ...”
https://www.newscientist.com/article/dn8576-fast-spinning-neutron-star-smashes-speed-limit/
Correction to my earlier post...
“The star rotates 716 times per second [2,577,600 per min]”
Make that: 42,960 per min.
I mistakenly multiplied by 3,600, instead of 60.
3,600 = number secs in an hour