The Fastest Spinning Object Ever Found

Picture a star heavier than the Sun, crushed into a ball the size of a city, spinning 716 times a second.

It is a pulsar called PSR J1748, the fastest spinning object ever found. At 716 rotations a second, its surface moves at nearly a quarter of light speed.

A pulsar is the collapsed core of a dead star, a neutron star so dense a teaspoon of it would weigh billions of tonnes. This one is spinning so fast that its equator moves at over 70,000 kilometres per second. That spin places a hard limit on its size. If the star were any wider than about 30 kilometres across, the material at its surface would be flung off into space.

Try to picture it. An object more massive than our Sun, whirling 716 times every second, faster than a kitchen blender, and it has been doing it for hundreds of millions of years.

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