A team of researchers looking at a supernova explosion unintentionally stumbled upon the brightest pulsar ever recorded.

According to Texas Tech, Tom Maccarone, an associate professor of physics at the school, was part of the research group that made the discovery.

"For years, scientists believed the ultra-rare, ultraluminous X-ray sources were caused by black holes eating other nearby stars, accreting gas and emitting a light that’s millions of times brighter than our sun," Maccarone said. "That may still be the case with most. However, we discovered that one of these entities, of which there are about 20 known so far, is actually a pulsar."

The entity Maccarone and his fellow researchers were studying was in the M82 galaxy, which is around 12 million light years away from Earth.

"The X-ray emission we saw showed a pulse," explained Maccarone. "That told us this was actually a pulsar – a star with about the mass of the sun packed into a region about the size of a city."

The discovery will help astronomers understand how black holes gorge and grow so quickly.

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