While nothing with mass can move faster than the speed oflight, scientists now think some weird, faster-than-light currents may be thepowerhouse for fast-spinning stars.
The idea may sound heretical to one of most deeply heldtenets in physics, which states that thespeedof light is the ultimate speed limit.
"No laws of physics were broken or harmed in thisproduction," said researcher John Singleton of Los Alamos NationalLaboratory in Los Alamos, N. M. "This is not science fiction; it?sreal."
The researchers think that pulsars' rotating magnetic fieldscreate this current, which pushes the charged particles off in differentdirections, resulting in a focused burst of light.
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"We think we can explain virtually all observational datausing this method," Singleton said.
Nonetheless, it's a somewhat radical idea, so the scientistsaren't expecting everyone to agree with them immediately.
"This essentially is a completely new approach topulsars, so will be treated with a great deal of hostility until it settlesin," Singleton said.
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Clara Moskowitz is a science and space writer who joined the Space.com team in 2008 and served as Assistant Managing Editor from 2011 to 2013. Clara has a bachelor's degree in astronomy and physics from Wesleyan University, and a graduate certificate in science writing from the University of California, Santa Cruz. She covers everything from astronomy to human spaceflight and once aced a NASTAR suborbital spaceflight training program for space missions. Clara is currently Associate Editor of Scientific American. To see her latest project is, follow Clara on Twitter.
