Students discover millisecond pulsar, help in the search for gravitational waves
Tuesday, January 31, 2012 - 09:03
in Astronomy & Space
A special project to search for pulsars has bagged the first student discovery of a millisecond pulsar a super-fast spinning star, and this one rotates about 324 times per second. The Pulsar Search Collaboratory (PSC) has students analyzing real data from the National Radio Astronomy Observatorys (NRAO) Robert C. Byrd Green Bank Telescope (GBT) to find pulsars. Astronomers involved with the project said the discovery could help detect elusive ripples in spacetime known as gravitational waves.