It's not just people that can have fractured personas. Pulsars are prized as cosmic timekeepers for their regular flashes, but now one turns out to behave most erratically: it shines at different frequencies at different times. Pulsars are spinning neutron stars that emit beams of radiation from their magnetic poles. These poles are offset from the star's axis of rotation, so the beams sweep around like a lighthouse and the star appears to pulse. Pulsars could be useful in detecting gravitational waves, because the timing of flashes should be slightly altered by these ripples in space-time.
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