

The oldest lonely pulsar, estimated to be 200 million years old, has been found flying along at 440,000 miles per hour in the Milky Way by scientists using the Chandra X-Ray Observatory.

Labeled PSR J0108-1431, the small, dense star is 10 times older than other aging pulsars that have remained isolated instead of being pulled into a binary system, say researchers led by Penn State University's George Pavlov.

Surprising to the team, the dense star, considered a bed-ridden codger in stellar life-cycle terms, is emitting more x-ray radiation and emitting it more efficiently than younger pulsars.