December 7, 2021

The area around Calvera (in the circle) observed by the Fermi space telescope's LAT instrument

An article accepted for publication in “The Astrophysical Journal” reports a study on the pulsar cataloged as 1RXS J141256.0+792204 and nicknamed Calvera, a reference to the movie “The Magnificent Seven” due to the fact that it’s an isolated pulsar like the previously known ones, nicknamed the magnificent seven. A team of researchers from the Italian National Institute of Astrophysics and the University of Padua used the NICER instrument on the International Space Station to study Calvera. The conclusions are that this pulsar is in the Milky Way’s halo, much farther than estimated after its discovery, and is much younger than the magnificent seven.