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A "dead star" neutron star has been spotted spinning 716 times a second, astonishing astronomers who say it is the joint fastest-spinning cosmic body they have ever seen. What's more terrifying is that its surface is simultaneously erupting with powerful explosions, which are almost the same as detonating atomic bombs.

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NASA's X-ray telescope Neutron Star Interior Composition Explorer (NICER) mounted on the outside of the International Space Station captured the fast-spinning neutron star.

The demon star belongs to the binary system 4U 1820-30, which sits in the globular cluster NGC 6624. This cluster sits inside the Milky Way, situated near the heart of our galaxy, and is around 26 light-years from Earth.

"We were studying thermonuclear explosions from this system and then found remarkable oscillations, suggesting a neutron star spinning around its centre axis at an astounding 716 times per second," Gaurava Kumar Jaisawal of DTU Space, a member of the research team, said in a statement.

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The only other body with such a fast spinning rate in the binary system is another neutron star called PSR J1748–2446. This one also spins at a rate of 716 times a second or 42,960 times per minute.

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It is a dead star, a white dwarf, which is almost the same in mass as remnants left behind by stars comparable to the sun in mass. This stellar corpse is moving around its neutron star partner once every 11 minutes. This makes it a binary star system with the shortest orbital period ever seen.

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Neutron stars that spin so fast are formed when extremely huge stars, that are at least eight times the mass of the sun, run out of fuel for nuclear fusion.

Why do some neutron stars spin so fast?

All stars, at some point, run out of fuel. They can no longer fuse elements to create progressively heavier elements in their core. When this happens, the outward energy or "radiation pressure" ceases to exist. Since this is what has helped it stand against the inward push of its own gravity for billions of years, its core rapidly collapses under its own gravity. 

This process sends out shockwaves into the dying star's outer layers. A supernova explosion is triggered that rips away the outer layers and most of the star's mass.

The newly deceased star has a width of only 20 kilometres, and it is this rapid compression in diameter that causes neutron stars to spin rapidly.