Ketterle and his colleagues at MIT decided to spin a BEC and see what would happen. Ketterle said he didnt have neutron stars in mind when he did the experiment: "BECs are a new form of matter, and we wanted to learn more about them. By rotating BECs, we force them to reveal their properties." Simulating the inside of a weird star was to be an unintended spin-off. Ketterles team shined a rotating laser beam on the condensate, which was held in place by magnets. He compared the process to "stroking a ping-pong ball with a feather until it starts spinning." Suddenly, a regular array of whirlpools appeared. "It was a breathtaking experience when we saw those vortices," Ketterle recalled.http://www.cosmiverse.com/space04050206.html
