Pulsars

AUG 01, 1968

The more we learn about the newly discovered pulsating radio sources, the more difficulty we have in producing a theory that will explain their remarkably regular pulse repetition periods and otherwise highly irregular behavior.

DOI: 10.1063/1.3035101

Stephen P. Maran

A. G. W. Cameron

THE DISCOVERY OF PULSARS, or rapidly pulsating radio sources, was, like certain other historic events in astronomy, an accident. It is reminiscent of the unexpected detection of radio bursts from Jupiter by Bernard F. Burke and Kenneth L. Franklin, who were studying the Crab Nebula, and of the discovery of the cosmic fireball radiation by Arno A. Penzias and R. W. Wilson, who had intended to survey the galactic continuum at high latitudes.

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More about the authors

Stephen P. Maran, Kitt Peak National Observatory.

A. G. W. Cameron, Belfer Graduate School.