Pulsars
Púlsares (estrellas de neutrones)
- Date
- 1967 · confidence high
- Place
- Mullard Radio Astronomy Observatory, Cambridge, England
- Credited to
- Jocelyn Bell Burnell, Antony Hewish
- People
- 👤 Antony Hewish1924–2021👤 Jocelyn Bell Burnell1943–
- Field
- Cosmos & Earth
⚠️ Disputed: the sources disagree.
What was discovered
Bell detected radio pulses of extraordinary regularity (PSR B1919+21), identified as rotating neutron stars. It confirmed the existence of these ultra-dense objects predicted in 1934.
The 1974 Nobel Prize went to Hewish and Ryle, not Bell Burnell, in a widely criticised decision.
What it led to
- Astrophysics of neutron stars
- Cosmic clocks: first exoplanet and indirect gravitational waves
- Crab pulsar as remnant of the 1054 supernova
Built on
Made possible
- Cygnus X-1, first stellar black hole candidate1971-1972
- Pioneer plaque: the first physical message to other civilisations1972
- Hulse-Taylor binary pulsar1974-1979
- First confirmed exoplanets around a pulsar1992
- FAST 500 m spherical radio telescope2016
- Gravitational-wave background from pulsar timing arrays2023
- Pulsar timing