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Intro music.

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Astronomers with NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory have found a pulsating star that's too cool to be believed.

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The object they discovered is a type of neutron star called a pulsar.

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Pulsars spin and flash radiation like the spinning lights found on a police car.

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Understanding how pulsars function could help explain how nuclear forces and magnetism work in our universe.

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Pulsar 3C58 should have a temperature of about 1.5 million degrees Celsius.

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However, new readings from Chandra show the star's temperature to be 500,000 degrees cooler than expected.

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Pulsars form following the supernova explosion of a once-healthy star.

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The explosion triggers a compression of protons and electrons inside the star's core.

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The result is a core dense with neutrons and even tinier neutrinos.

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The neutrinos escape the center, removing heat-energy and cooling the star.

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Why 3C58 is cooling so rapidly is unknown by scientists.

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One possible theory suggests the core contains an unusually high number of surviving protons or exotic subatomic particles.

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One thing's for certain: Chandra is hot on the answer's trail.