---
title: "A Brutal ‘Dead Star’ Is Stuck In a Whirlpool of Warped Spacetime"
description: "A bizarre binary system comprised of a dead pulsar and a white dwarf is spinning so fast that it's distorting spacetime around it like a whirlpool."
date: "2020-01-31"
modified: "2020-01-31"
authors:
  - name: "Dan Robitzski"
    link: "https://futurism.com/authors/danrobitzski"
url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/dead-star-warped-spacetime"
categories:
  - "Physics"
  - "Science & Energy"
tags:
  - "physics"
  - "pulsar"
  - "space"
  - "the digest"
---

# A Brutal ‘Dead Star’ Is Stuck In a Whirlpool of Warped Spacetime

![](<https://futurism.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/dead-star-distorting-spacetime.jpg>)
*\<em\>Image: NASA/Victor Tangermann\</em\>*

## Drag And Drop

A pulsar — the [dead remains of a star](<https://futurism.com/the-byte/huge-thermonuclear-blast-pulsar-deep-space>) that detonated in a supernova — in a distant galaxy just proved Einstein right, yet again, by demonstrating one of his predictions for the behavior of the universe.

The pulsar orbits a white dwarf star that spins so rapidly that it actually [drags spacetime around](<https://futurism.com/black-hole-space-time-wobbling-jets>) it like a fork twirling up a bite of spaghetti, a bizarre phenomenon called frame dragging that had never before been definitively observed by scientists, [according to *Space.com*](<https://www.space.com/einstein-general-relativity-frame-dragging.html>).

## Dropping Frames

In order to warp spacetime enough to shift the orbit of a pulsar, the white dwarf whips around in a complete rotation 30 times per hour, [according to research](<https://science.sciencemag.org/content/367/6477/577>) published Friday in the journal *Science*.

Astronomers suspect that by watching how the pulsar wobbles around on its axis, they can finally glean a better understanding of how they form and behave over time, according to *Space.com*.

## Long Time Coming

It's unusual to find a pulsar orbiting a white dwarf star that's older than it is, Max Planck Institute astrophysicist Vivek Venkatraman Krishnan told *Space.com*, and the new discovery could help reveal what brought them together.

"The density of matter inside a neutron star far exceeds what can be achieved in a lab," he told *Space.com*, "so there is a wealth of new physics to be learnt by using this technique to double neutron-star systems."

**READ MORE:** [Space-time is swirling around a dead star, proving Einstein right again](<https://www.space.com/einstein-general-relativity-frame-dragging.html>) \[*Space.com*\]

**More on spacetime:** *[Bizarre Black Hole “Drags” Spacetime, Blasts Wobbling Plasma Jets](<https://futurism.com/black-hole-space-time-wobbling-jets>)*

## Author
Dan Robitzki is a senior reporter for Futurism, where he likes to cover AI, tech ethics, and medicine. He spends his extra time fencing and streaming games from Los Angeles, California.

### Author social links  
[Twitter](<https://x.com/danrobitzski>)