Astronomy THRILLER on Bad Astronomy

«In the case of the pulsar discovered by Swift in June, though, things are a little different. The star had a companion, a normal star that was originally maybe not too different than the Sun. It survived the supernova explosion, and aged. Fast forward a few billion years. The second star started to become a red giant, and its outer layers puffed up. The pulsar greedily started eating that material, pulling it right off the other star. It got incredibly hot as it did so, and a fierce pulsar wind started which pummeled the other star, literally eroding away much of the other star. In the meantime, the material falling on the pulsar sped up its rotation.»
http://www.badastronomy.com/bablog/2007/09/12/vampire-star/
This is exactly why I LOVE astronomy.