Distant 'galaxy' isn't a galaxy at all — but one of the brightest pulsars ever detected

I was present at the birth of the Space Age: From my memoir for my grandchildren.
“Pyat, cheteeree, tree, dva, adeen, O-gon!” was the count-down of Sputnik I, the first earth satellite launched at 19:28 (Ural Time), 4 Oct 1957. Although It was 55 years ago, I remember listening to an intercept of the count-down like it was yesterday. I was a young “rent-a-trooper” for the National Security Agency (NSA) stationed in Germany with the Army Security Agency. As low pay soldiers, we saved the US Government huge money doing all the field intercept and low level analysis of Soviet military communications for the NSA. I had only been in Germany a couple of months fresh from Russian language training and still “gung-ho” to do my part in the scary Cold War going on between the US and NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) and the Soviet Union and their Warsaw Pact allies. Within hours of the launch, a crusty old Warrant Officer called us down to the control room. I recall him explaining that we would be listening to something historical and that we might not really appreciate what was unfolding. He played the tape a couple of times asking us what we thought was happening. Finally, “it’s the count-down of a Russian rocket blasting into space and they were successful….they have a satellite in orbit circling the earth AND it’s Staying up there. He went on then to explain and gave us an update the following day when the earth satellite began broadcasting radio “beeping” signals. At some point, it was impressed upon us that we were in on the “birth of the space age”. The rest of the story is that the Russians had beat us to space, President Eisenhower pushed through crash programs to catch up – we, the invincible United States was supposed to be first but our rockets were blowing up on the launch pad. There was a panic rush to educate more engineers and mathematicians resulting in the National Defense Education act of 1958 and the first guaranteed student loans for college. The rest is history. We beat the Soviets in the space race to the moon when, in hindsight, the Russians never planned to send a manned mission to the moon. In any case, Neil Armstrong electrified the world with his moon walk in 1969. I felt a tiny connection with that triumph because I still clearly remember the “Birth” of the Space Age – 4 Oct 1957 and the launch of Sputnik I.

I am amazed Scientists can determine some of the things they have about objects that are so far away.

Excellent astronomy share Lt Col Charlie Brown , really great read ma'am.