How did studies of the Crab Nebula pin down the explanation of of pulsars?

Answer 1

If I understand correctly, the supernova remnant at the cneter of the Crab Nebula IS a pulsar; a neutron star whose magnetic poles do not correspond to the poles of its spin axis, and whose rapid spin cause the magnetic poles to point in our direction periodically (every small fraction of a second.) As the period of the pulses (the period we can detect the magnetic field) grow smaller, we realized that it was due to the neutron star contracting.

28 OCT 06, 1424 hrs.