High-school student discovers new pulsar

Physics Today : A 15-year-old high-school student has discovered a new pulsar through an NSF-funded program called the Pulsar Search Collaboratory (PSC), which is a joint project of the National Radio Astronomy Observatory and West Virginia University . Shay Bloxton, (left image. credit NRAO/AUI/NSF), a sophomore at Nicholas County High School in Summersville, West Virginia , spotted evidence of the pulsar on 15 October 2009 in data from the Robert C. Byrd Green Bank Telescope (GBT). “I was very excited when I found out I had actually made a discovery,” says Bloxton.One month later, Bloxton was invited to the GBT to confirm her analysis of the object with NRAO astronomers through a new observation—which proved that the object is a pulsar, a rotating, superdense neutron star."Participating in the PSC has definitely encouraged me to pursue my dream of being an astrophysicist,” said Bloxton, adding that she hopes to attend West Virginia University to study astrophysics.The PSC provides training for teachers and students in scientific techniques and in the use of astronomical software. Each student group is given a parcel of data from the GBT to analyze.Each portion of the data is analyzed by multiple teams. In addition to learning to use the analysis software, the student teams also must learn how to recognize man-made radio interference that contaminates the data. The project is funded through 2011.This is the second success for the PSC program. In March 2009, Lucas Bolyard, a student from South Harrison High School in West Virginia, discovered a pulsar-like object called a rotating radio transient . Related link Pulsar Search Collaboratory