There was once a science fiction novel that said: On a planet in the depths of the universe, a high degree of civilization has been produced, but the gravity of that planet is greater than that of the earth, so the residents there are very short. Extremely developed technology has degenerated their limbs, but their brains have developed highly. What’s more interesting is that their skin is green and can directly perform photosynthesis like plants, absorbing energy, so they don’t have to eat.
In October 1967, 24-year-old female Cambridge graduate student, Jocelyn Bell, received a very strong radio pulse signal when he was observing interstellar flickering with a radio telescope. This signal appears repeatedly, with a period of 1.337 seconds. It is as accurate and stable as a human pulse. After observing, they found that this pulse signal passes through the meridian circle every 23 hours and 56 minutes. The time interval of its repetition is the same as the time when the earth rotates for one week.
scientist Hueish believes that this may be the signal sent by those "little green men in the universe" to the earth, and they must also be eagerly waiting for the echo. So he called this radio power supply LGM-1.
In January 1968, four mysterious signals have been confirmed. How could there be so many "cosmic little green men" calling to the earth at the same time at the same time? Huyish believed that these pulse signals should come from the planet itself, so he named them "Radio Pulsar", abbreviated as "Pulsar".
In February 1968, Huyish and Bell announced the discovery of the pulsar, which caused a sensation in the international astronomical community. Pulsars are known as one of the four major astronomical discoveries in the 1960s.
pulsar is actually so similar to the neutron star that Soviet physicists predicted in 1932! Astronomers discovered another pulsar in the center of Crab Nebula , which proved that neutron stars were indeed generated when supernova burst out . Pulsars are neutron stars.
To date, thousands of pulsars have been found in our Milky Way . They are special existences of the Milky Way, and most of them live near the galaxy plane.
The darkest pulsar currently observed was discovered in 1994. It is located in , , 280 light years away from us, spinning 74 times per second. It is also the closest pulsar to us.
