Rare, Fast-Spinning Pulsar Discovered Near Milky Way's Black Hole

Breakthrough Listen team's discovery challenges Einstein's theory of relativity and promises new insights into the galactic center.

Published on Feb. 23, 2026

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Astronomers have announced the discovery of a rare, rapidly rotating pulsar at the heart of the Milky Way galaxy, near the supermassive black hole Sagittarius A*. This pulsar, named Breakthrough Listen Pulsar (BLPSR), is spinning approximately 122 times per second, providing a natural laboratory for testing Albert Einstein's theory of general relativity.

Why it matters

The scarcity of pulsars detected in the galactic center raises significant questions about the actual number of dead stars present. Studying this pulsar near Sagittarius A* will allow scientists to map the gravitational field around the black hole with unprecedented accuracy, helping to refine our understanding of how black holes interact with their surroundings and test the limits of Einstein's theory in extreme conditions.

The details

The Breakthrough Listen team used the Green Bank Telescope (GBT) in West Virginia to identify the BLPSR object. Interestingly, scientists have found fewer pulsars than initially predicted in the galactic center, prompting further investigation. Pulsars are often called 'cosmic lighthouses' because they emit beams of radio radiation from their poles, sweeping across the universe with remarkable timing precision, making them ideal 'cosmic clocks' for testing Einstein's theory of general relativity.

  • The discovery was announced in early February 2026.

The players

Breakthrough Listen

A team of astronomers who used the Green Bank Telescope to identify the rare, rapidly rotating pulsar near the supermassive black hole Sagittarius A*.

Sagittarius A*

The supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way galaxy, which has a mass four million times that of our Sun and provides a perfect testing ground for studying the effects of gravity on pulsars.

Karen Perez

A scientist at the SETI Institute who noted that their survey, one of the most sensitive conducted on the galactic center, should have detected around 10% of millisecond pulsars and 50% of slower-moving canonical pulsars if their population mirrored other regions of the Milky Way.

Slavko Bogdanov

A scientist at the Columbia Astrophysics Laboratory who explained that as pulses from the pulsar travel near the exceptionally massive Sagittarius A*, they may be deflected and experience time delays due to the curvature of spacetime, as predicted by Einstein's theory of general relativity.

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What they’re saying

“We must not let individuals continue to damage private property in San Francisco.”

— Robert Jenkins, San Francisco resident (San Francisco Chronicle)

What’s next

Future astronomical projects, such as the Next-Generation Very Large Array (ngVLA) and the Square Kilometer Array (SKA), are expected to provide more answers about the actual number of dead stars present in the galactic center. Continued observations from these projects are eagerly anticipated to provide a more complete picture.

The takeaway

This discovery of a rare, fast-spinning pulsar near the supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way galaxy promises to revolutionize our understanding of dead star populations in this extreme region and provides a natural laboratory for testing the limits of Einstein's theory of general relativity.