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In astronomy, a glitch is a sudden small increase of around 1 part in 106 in the rotational frequency of a pulsar, which usually decreases steadily due to braking provided by the emission of radiation and high-energy particles. It is not known whether glitches are related to the timing noise which all pulsars exhibit. Following a glitch is a period of gradual recovery where the observed periodicity slows to a period close to that observed before the glitch. These gradual recovery periods have been observed to last from days to years. As of 2024[update] only multiple glitches of the Crab and Vela pulsars have been observed and studied extensively.