Number 261 (Story #2), March 6, 1996 by Phillip F. Schewe and Ben Stein X-RAY BURSTER/PULSAR. The first object known to be both an x-ray pulsar (emitting regular pulses twice a second) and an x- ray burster (whose transient bursts---up to 18 an hour---make it at times the brightest celestial x-ray emitter) has been detected by the Gamma Ray Observatory. First spotted in December 1995 near the galactic center, the object GRO J1744-28 is believed by some theorists, such as Don Lamb at Chicago, to be a binary star system in which the material from a dying normal star is being siphoned away by a nearby neutron star. The infall of the material might be igniting thermonuclear explosions at the surface of the neutron star. (C. Kouveliotou et al., Nature, 29 Feb. 1996; news item in Science, 23 Feb.)