May 5, 2022

The pulsar PSR J0523-7125 in the square seen by MeerKAT (Image courtesy Yuanming Wang)

An article published in “The Astrophysical Journal” reports the discovery of a pulsar cataloged as PSR J0523-7125, the brightest pulsar discovered outside the Milky Way. A team of researchers led by Tara Murphy of the Australian University of Sydney used a new technique based on the analysis of the polarization of the light emitted by the pulsar to identify it among the observations conducted with the ASKAP radio telescope. The polarization was crucial in the identification because it made it possible to understand that the light came from a pulsar and not from an object of another type.