Pulsar Neutron Star 2D: Lighthouse Beam Sweep

This 2D side-view simulator shows why a pulsar appears to blink even though the neutron star itself radiates continuously: two beams launched from its tilted magnetic poles sweep around with the star's rotation, and a fixed observer off to the side only catches a flash when a beam's cone happens to cross their line of sight. Adjust the rotation period to speed up or slow down the spin, drag the magnetic-axis misalignment to widen or narrow the sweep circle each beam traces, and change the beam width to make a crossing easier or harder to catch — the live light curve at the bottom of the view plots brightness over time, and the readout tallies how many sweeps actually produced an observed pulse versus how many missed the observer's line of sight entirely.