About Pulsars
What is a pulsar?
A pulsar is a highly magnetised neutron star, with a radius of
10-15 km, having somewhat greater mass than the Sun which has a radius
of approximately 1 million km. Radiation is beamed out along the
magnetic poles and pulses of radiation are received as the beam
crosses the Earth, in the same manner as the beam from a lighthouse
causes flashes. Being enormous cosmic flywheels with a tick attached,
they make some of the best clocks known to mankind.
Further Information
- Pulsar Astronomy
This short lecture course was given to fourth-year students at the University
of Manchester within the
Frontiers of Astrophysics series in 2005.
- A Tutorial on Radio Pulsars
This tutorial was produced as part of the lecture course given to MSc
students at Jodrell bank in 1996.
- Binary and Millisecond Pulsars
A graduate-level review article with links to other web-based resources.
- Pulsars (PS-file)
A review article about pulsars presented at the JENAM conference
in Budapest 2003 (to be published by EDP Science). Click
here for a PDF-file.
- Millisecond Pulsars as Tools of Fundamental Physics (PS-file)
A review article about millisecond pulsar timing and its
application presented at the 302.WE-Heraeus-Seminar
"Astrophysics, Clocks and Fundamental Constants" in Bad Honnef 2003
(to be published by Springer Lecture Notes in Physics). Click
here for a PDF-file.
- The Sounds of Pulsars
Listen to the sounds made by the brightest pulsars in the sky, recorded
using some of the largest radiotelescopes in the world. -
