Glitching radio waves from dead stars explained by swirling superfluid

Pulsars that emit radio waves “glitch” as they rotate – this seems to be caused by interruptions to swirling vortices inside these ultra-dense stars

The radio waves we see from pulsars have a mysterious glitch – but now we know the ingredients that must be present in the heart of these ultra-dense stellar corpses to give their emissions a hiccup.

About 60 years ago, researchers noticed that the radio emissions from pulsars can suddenly and unexpectedly change in frequency, indicating that the pulsar’s rotation slowed down.