What would the sky look like if you could stand on the surface of a pulsar?

— Kathryn S., Seattle

A blur, mostly.

A pulsar is a fast-spinning neutron star: the remnant of a star that has fallen in on itself under the pull of its own gravity, collapsing down to a dense, city-size orb of subatomic particles. The fastest known pulsar, PSR J1748-2446, spins at a rate of 716 times per second, equal to about 43,000 miles per second.

A neutron star’s gravity is not as strong as a black hole’s, but it’s close. Light can escape a neutron star, but not much else can. Thanks to the massive gravitational pull, no ordinary matter can survive there, certainly not a fragile human body; landing on the sun would be easier.