Milky Way May Hide Extremely Magnetic Dead Star at Its Heart

Potential discovery of a rapidly spinning pulsar near the supermassive black hole at the center of our galaxy could provide unprecedented tests of general relativity.

Published on Feb. 21, 2026

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Scientists suspect that a rapidly spinning, highly magnetic neutron star, or "pulsar," may dwell at the heart of the Milky Way. The potential discovery was made by the Breakthrough Listen team, who conducted a radio wave search using the Green Bank Telescope in West Virginia between 2021 and 2023. The team found a pulsar candidate rotating around 122 times per second, but were surprised by how few pulsars were detected overall, raising questions about the predicted population sizes of these extreme dead stars at the center of our galaxy.

Why it matters

If confirmed, the discovery of this pulsar could help scientists better understand both the Milky Way and Einstein's theory of general relativity. Pulsars can serve as precise cosmic clocks, allowing researchers to study the extreme gravitational effects near the supermassive black hole at the center of our galaxy, Sagittarius A*. This could provide an unprecedented test of general relativity around a supermassive black hole.

The details

The potential pulsar, dubbed the Breakthrough Listen Pulsar (BLPSR), was detected by researchers searching for radio signals that could indicate intelligent alien life. While the team was surprised by the lack of pulsars found, they say the discovery of even a single candidate is significant, as the region around Sagittarius A* is extremely turbulent and dense, making it challenging to spot these extreme dead stars. Pulsars are neutron stars that spin rapidly and emit beams of radio waves from their poles, sweeping across the cosmos like a cosmic lighthouse.

  • The Breakthrough Listen team conducted their radio wave search using the Green Bank Telescope in West Virginia between 2021 and 2023.
  • The team's results were published on February 9, 2026 in The Astrophysical Journal.

The players

Breakthrough Listen

A research program that searches the cosmos for radio signals that could represent "technosignatures" indicating the activity of intelligent alien life.

Karen Perez

The lead researcher on the Breakthrough Listen team that discovered the pulsar candidate.

Sagittarius A*

The supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way galaxy, with a mass equivalent to over 4 million suns.

Slavko Bogdanov

A member of the research team and astrophysicist at the Columbia Astrophysics Laboratory.

Green Bank Telescope

A radio telescope observatory located in West Virginia that was used to conduct the pulsar search.

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What they’re saying

“Our survey is one of the most sensitive ever conducted toward the Galactic Center. We should have been sensitive to approximately 10% of millisecond pulsars and 50% of canonical, slow pulsars, assuming the pulsar population in the Galactic Center resembles that of the broader Milky Way.”

— Karen Perez, Lead researcher, Breakthrough Listen (The Astrophysical Journal)

“Despite this sensitivity, we detected only a single candidate – dubbed the Breakthrough Listen Pulsar (BLPSR) – which remains under active investigation.”

— Karen Perez, Lead researcher, Breakthrough Listen (The Astrophysical Journal)

“Any external influence on a pulsar, such as the gravitational pull of a massive object, would introduce anomalies in this steady arrival of pulses, which can be measured and modelled.”

— Slavko Bogdanov, Astrophysicist, Columbia Astrophysics Laboratory (The Astrophysical Journal)

“We're looking forward to what follow-up observations might reveal about this pulsar candidate. If confirmed, it could help us better understand both our own galaxy and general relativity as a whole.”

— Karen Perez, Lead researcher, Breakthrough Listen (The Astrophysical Journal)

What’s next

Future astronomy projects such as the next-generation Very Large Array (ngVLA) and the Square Kilometer Array (SKA) should have the sensitivity and resolution needed to truly determine the population density of pulsars at the center of the Milky Way.

The takeaway

The potential discovery of an extremely magnetic dead star, or pulsar, at the heart of the Milky Way could provide an unprecedented opportunity to test Einstein's theory of general relativity around a supermassive black hole, leading to groundbreaking insights about our galaxy and the fundamental laws of the universe.