Antony Hewish

Antony Hewish (1924–2021) was a British radio astronomer who shared the 1974 Nobel Prize in Physics for his role in discovering pulsars and developing interplanetary scintillation techniques.

Jocelyn Bell Burnell: A British astrophysicist whose analysis of radio telescope records led to the first observation of a pulsar. As Hewish’s doctoral student, she identified the unusual signal in the survey data.
Interplanetary scintillation: Rapid fluctuations in radio-wave intensity caused by irregularities in the solar wind. Hewish developed this method to locate compact radio sources through their rapid intensity variations.
Pulsar: A rotating neutron star whose radiation is observed as regular pulses, often at radio wavelengths. The first known pulsar emerged as a repeating signal in Hewish’s survey.
1974 Nobel Prize in Physics: The physics Nobel awarded to Martin Ryle and Antony Hewish for radio astronomy discoveries and research. Hewish received the prize for his role in discovering pulsars; Bell Burnell was not included.
Martin Ryle: A British radio astronomer who pioneered radio interferometry and shared the 1974 Nobel Prize in Physics. Ryle led the Cambridge radio astronomy group in which Hewish conducted his research.
Interplanetary Scintillation Array: A large Cambridge radio telescope built to survey compact radio sources using interplanetary scintillation. Hewish designed this instrument, whose survey records contained the first pulsar signal.
PSR B1919+21: The first pulsar discovered, observed in 1967 in the constellation Vulpecula. This source produced the unusual pulses that Bell Burnell and Hewish investigated.
Nobel Prize controversy: Public disputes over the Nobel Prize’s choices, exclusions, or recognition of scientific contributions. The 1974 award prompted debate over the recognition of Bell Burnell’s contribution.
Fred Hoyle: A British astronomer known for stellar nucleosynthesis, cosmology, and advocacy of steady-state cosmology. Hoyle publicly argued that Bell Burnell deserved recognition alongside Hewish for the pulsar discovery.
Radio interferometry: A technique that combines signals from separated radio antennas to improve angular resolution. Hewish’s telescope work grew from the interferometric methods central to Cambridge radio astronomy.

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Joseph Hooton Taylor Jr.Related: Pulsar discovery opened the observational field in which Taylor made his career.