Vela Pulsar

A pulsar in the constellation Vela, associated with a supernova remnant 10,000 years old. It is one of the strongest radio pulsars, and the strongest gamma-ray source in the sky. It was discovered in 1968 during a general search for pulsars in the southern hemisphere and has a short period, 89 milliseconds, characteristic of young pulsars. The period is steadily increasing at a rate of 10.7 nanoseconds a day as the pulsar loses energy. Since observations of it started, the pulsar has also undergone several major glitches in which the period has suddenly decreased by about 200 nanoseconds.