Astronomers have discovered a neutron star orbiting a mysterious object that, by all accounts, shouldn’t be able to exist. Seemingly invisible in light, and too small to be a black hole, the object defies explanation.

Using the MeerKAT radio telescope in South Africa, the mystery began when astronomers spotted a pulsar in a globular cluster called NGC 1851, in the constellation of Columba. Pulsars are a type of neutron star that have strong magnetic fields, which creates cones of radio waves that sweep around like lighthouse beams. When these cones happen to be facing Earth, they appear to us to be pulsing regularly, hence the name.

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Because those signals are so steady and predictable, astronomers can study their timing and calculate a surprising amount of information about the environment around it. In this case, they found that the pulsar was orbiting alongside a second object – and that’s when things started to get weird.

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