It somehow survived an explosion that would surely have destroyed our Sun.
Now it is spins 30 times a second and is famous for the its rapid flashes.
It is the Crab Pulsar, the rotating neutron star remnant of the supernova that created the Crab Nebula.
A careful eye can spot the pulsar flashes in the featured time-lapse video, just above the image center.
The video was created by adding together images taken only when the pulsar was flashing, as well as co-added images from other relative times.
The Crab Pulsar flashes may have been first noted by an unknown woman attending a public observing night at the University of Chicago in 1957 -- but who was not believed.
The progenitor supernova explosion was seen by many in the year 1054 AD.
The expanding Crab Nebula remains a picturesque expanding gas cloud that glows across the electromagnetic spectrum.
The pulsar is now thought to have survived the supernova explosion because it is composed of extremely-dense quantum-degenerate matter.
Media Credits & Attribution
** Video Credit & Copyright: ** [Martin Fiedler](mailto: martin .dot. fiedler @at@ mail .dot. de)