Russell Alan Hulse

Russell Alan Hulse is an American physicist who discovered the binary pulsar PSR B1913+16 with Joseph Hooton Taylor Jr. Their discovery earned them the 1993 Nobel Prize in Physics.

PSR B1913+16: A binary system containing a pulsar and a neutron star, discovered by Russell Hulse and Joseph Taylor in 1974. This is the system whose discovery brought Hulse the Nobel Prize.
Pulsar timing: The measurement of pulse arrival times from a rotating neutron star to study its rotation, motion, or surroundings. Precise pulse timings let Hulse and Taylor determine the binary orbit.
Joseph Hooton Taylor Jr.: An American astrophysicist who co-discovered the binary pulsar PSR B1913+16 with Russell Hulse. Taylor supervised Hulse’s doctoral research and shared the 1993 Nobel Prize with him.
Binary pulsar tests of general relativity: Tests of relativistic gravity using the precise orbital and timing behavior of pulsars in binary systems. PSR B1913+16 provided the first strong evidence for gravitational-wave energy loss.
Arecibo Observatory: A radio telescope observatory in Puerto Rico, operated from 1963 to 2020. Hulse used its telescope to survey pulsars and identify PSR B1913+16.
General relativity: Albert Einstein’s theory of gravity, describing gravitation as the curvature of spacetime by matter and energy. Its equations predict the orbital changes measured in the Hulse–Taylor system.
Anthony Hewish: A British radio astronomer who led the discovery of pulsars in 1967. The pulsar discoveries he helped establish made Hulse’s radio survey possible.
LIGO: The Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory, a pair of detectors that observe gravitational waves on Earth. The indirect evidence from Hulse’s binary pulsar discovery preceded LIGO’s direct detections.
Hulse–Taylor binary: The first binary pulsar system discovered, consisting of pulsar PSR B1913+16 and a neutron-star companion. The system’s orbital decay supplied the key evidence for gravitational-wave energy loss.
Gravitational waves: Ripples in spacetime produced by accelerating masses and propagating outward at the speed of light. The binary’s shrinking orbit matched energy loss through gravitational radiation.

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