Jocelyn Bell Burnell

Jocelyn Bell Burnell is a British astrophysicist who discovered the first radio pulsars in 1967 while studying radio astronomy as a doctoral student at the University of Cambridge.

Pulsar: A rapidly rotating neutron star that emits beams of electromagnetic radiation, observed as regular pulses when a beam crosses Earth. Bell Burnell recognized the repeating radio pulses that established this new class of astronomical object.
Neutron star: A compact stellar remnant composed predominantly of densely packed neutrons, formed when a massive star's core collapses. The first pulsars were identified as rotating neutron stars, explaining their brief, powerful radio pulses.
Antony Hewish: A British radio astronomer who shared the 1974 Nobel Prize in Physics for work leading to the discovery of pulsars. Hewish supervised Bell Burnell's doctoral research and led the Cambridge radio astronomy group.
Crab Pulsar: A pulsar at the center of the Crab Nebula, associated with the supernova observed in 1054. Its discovery soon supplied a striking link between pulsars and supernova remnants.
LGM-1: The informal name given to the first detected pulsar, whose regular radio pulses were initially considered potentially artificial. This first pulsar produced the unusual signal Bell Burnell found in the Cambridge survey data.
Radio astronomy: The study of celestial objects by detecting radio-frequency electromagnetic radiation. Bell Burnell's discovery depended on measuring radio waves rather than visible light.
Fred Hoyle: A British astronomer and cosmologist known for stellar nucleosynthesis and a steady-state model of the universe. Hoyle publicly argued that Bell Burnell should have shared the Nobel recognition for the pulsar discovery.
Binary pulsar: A pulsar in a gravitationally bound system with another star or compact object. Binary pulsars later enabled precise tests of general relativity, extending the field Bell Burnell helped establish.
Cambridge Radio Astronomy Group: The research group at the University of Cambridge that conducted radio astronomy observations with the Interplanetary Scintillation Array. Bell Burnell made her discovery while working with this group as a doctoral student.
Pulsar timing: The measurement of pulse arrival times from pulsars to study their rotation, motion, and surrounding systems. The first pulsar's exceptionally regular timing distinguished it from ordinary interference.

Linked from 13 pages