Pulsars are neutron stars which spin rapidly and produce huge electromagnetic radiation along a narrow beam. Neutron stars are very dense, and have short, regular spins. This produces a very precise interval between pulses that range from roughly milliseconds to seconds for an individual pulsar.

Pulsars are spherical, compact objects that are about the size of a large city but contain more mass than the sun. Scientists are using pulsars to study extreme states of matter, search for planets beyond Earth’s solar system and measure cosmic distances.

pulsar. / (ˈpʌlˌsɑː) / noun. any of a number of very small extremely dense objects first observed in 1967, which rotate very rapidly and emit very regular pulses of polarized radiation, esp radio waves. They are thought to be neutron stars formed following supernova explosions.

A Quasar are those that look like stars, but they are extremely luminous objects at all wavelengths. – Pulsars are highly magnetized rotating neutron stars, while quasars are extremely powerful and distant active galactic nuclei. – Quasars are bigger than pulsars. – Pulsars are less bright than quasars.

Pulsars are rotating neutron stars observed to have pulses of radiation at very regular intervals that typically range from milliseconds to seconds. Pulsars have very strong magnetic fields which funnel jets of particles out along the two magnetic poles. These accelerated particles produce very powerful beams of light.

Jocelyn Bell
“On 28 November 1967, it came again, a string of pulses one-and-a third seconds apart.” This was not the work of Little Green Men. Jocelyn Bell had discovered pulsars.

As nouns the difference between pulsar and quasar. is that pulsar is (star): a rotating neutron star that emits radio pulses periodically while quasar is (galaxy) an extragalactic object, starlike in appearance, that is among the most luminous and thought to be the most distant objects in the universe.

Definition of pulsar. : a celestial source of pulsating electromagnetic radiation (such as radio waves) characterized by a short relatively constant interval (such as .033 second) between pulses that is held to be a rotating neutron star.

A pulsar (from pulse and -ar as in ” quasar “) is a highly magnetized rotating compact star (usually neutron stars but also white dwarfs) that emits beams of electromagnetic radiation out of its magnetic poles.

From Earth, pulsars often look like flickering stars. On and off, on and off, they seem to blink with a regular rhythm. But the light from pulsars does not actually flicker or pulse, and these objects are not actually stars.