Once upon a time, people believed the Earth was flat. It was obvious, just look around, especially when looking at the ocean. Some people feared if they sailed too far, they would fall off the edge ...
But astronomers noticed that planetary motion did not follow the perfect circles dictated by the Church. Copernicus was one of the first to suggest the Earth is a rotating sphere, and orbits the Sun.
A magnetar is a neutron star with an insanely powerful magnetic sphere. And a pulsar is a neutron star spinning incredibly fast, blasting out beams of radio waves from their poles so they appear ...