The Discovery of Pulsars

Pulsars are highly magnetized, rotating neutron stars that emit beams of electromagnetic radiation from their poles. Discovered in 1967 by Jocelyn Bell Burnell and Antony Hewish, they were detected as regular, quick pulses of radio waves, similar to cosmic lighthouses. These pulses occur because the star's magnetic axis is misaligned with its rotation, causing the beams to sweep across Earth periodically. Pulsars provide valuable insights into extreme physics, including states of matter under immense pressure and magnetic fields, and serve as precise cosmic clocks for studying the universe.