Old pulsars still have new tricks to teach us
 
 26 July 2006
 The super-sensitivity of ESA's XMM-Newton X-ray observatory has shown
 that the prevailing theory of how stellar corpses, known as pulsars,
 generate their X-rays needs revising. In particular, the energy needed
 to generate the million-degree polar hotspots seen on cooling neutron
 stars may come predominately from inside the pulsar, not from outside.
 ...
 Until now, astronomers believed that hotspots are produced when the
 charged particles collide with the pulsar's surface at the poles.
 However, the latest XMM-Newton results have cast doubt on this view

 XMM-Newton captured detailed views of the X-ray emission from five
 pulsars, each of which was up to several million years old. "No other
 X-ray satellite can do this work. Only XMM-Newton is capable of observing
 details of their X-ray emission," says Becker. He and his collaborators
 found no evidence of surface emission, nor of polar hotspots, although
 they did see emission from the outwardly moving particles.

http://www.esa.int/esaSC/SEMB6IBUQPE_index_0.html

 Note: see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pulsar

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