A new preprint reports the second Einstein@Home discovery, of a radio pulsar orbiting a white dwarf star once every 9.4 hours. The pulsar, called J1952+2630, is spinning on its axis 48 times per second. It was discovered in data collected at Arecibo Observatory in 2005 by the PALFA Collaboration. The white-dwarf companion star is unusually massive, and weighs at least 95% as much as our sun. This means that J1952+2630 probably belongs to a rare class of intermediate-mass binary pulsars (five were previously known).

Congratulations to the two Einstein@Home participants whose computers found J1952+2630 with the highest significance: Dr. Vitaliy V. Shiryaev (Moscow, Russia) and Stacey Eastham (Darwen, UK)! And a big "thank you" to all Einstein@Home volunteers, whose continuing support makes these exciting discoveries possible.

Bruce Allen
Director, Einstein@Home
http://einstein.phys.uwm.edu/forum_thread.php?id=8788