Fifty years ago, Jocelyn Bell discovered pulsars and changed our view of the universe November 28, 2017 by George Hobbs And Simon Johnston, The Conversation Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! CSIRO Parkes radio telescope has discovered around half of all known pulsars. Credit: Wayne England, Author provided A pulsar is a small, spinning star – a giant ball of neutrons, left behind after a normal star has died in a fiery explosion. With a diameter of only 30 km, the star spins up to hundreds of times a second, while sending out a beam of radio waves (and sometimes other radiation, such as X-rays). When the beam is pointed in our direction and into our telescopes, we see a pulse. 2017 marks 50 years since pulsars were discovered. In that time, we have found more than 2,600 pulsars (mostly in the Milky Way), and used them to hunt for low-frequency gravitational waves, to determine the structure of our galaxy and to test the general theory of relativity. Read more at: https://phys.org/news/2017-11-fifty-years-jocelyn-bell-pulsars.html#jCp
Actually when the discovery was first made, one of the possible explanations was Alien Intelligence, or little green men. It was though quickly ruled out. Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!
Ruled out too soon...what a way to get the public interested in science. Thanks for posting and giving me an idea for the fringe section. Alex
