co-discovery of the Hulse-Taylor pulsar

The Hulse-Taylor pulsar was discovered in 1974 by Russell Hulse and Joseph Taylor using a radio telescope. They found a rapidly spinning neutron star that emitted regular radio pulses. This pulsar was part of a binary system, orbiting another dense object. Precise measurements showed the orbit was gradually shrinking, matching predictions from Einstein’s general relativity about energy loss via gravitational waves. This discovery provided the first indirect evidence of gravitational waves, confirming a major aspect of Einstein's theory and earning Hulse and Taylor the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1993.