What is a pulsar?A pulsar is a highly magnetised neutron star, with a radius of 10-15 km, having somewhat greater mass than the Sun which has a radius of approximately 1 million km. Radiation is beamed out along the magnetic poles and pulses of radiation are received as the beam crosses the Earth, in the same manner as the beam from a lighthouse causes flashes. Being enormous cosmic flywheels with a tick attached, they make some of the best clocks known to mankind.
- Pulsar Astronomy
This short lecture course was given to fourth-year students at the University of Manchester within the Frontiers of Astrophysics series in 2005.
- A Tutorial on Radio Pulsars
This tutorial was produced as part of the lecture course given to MSc students at Jodrell bank in 1996.
- Binary and Millisecond Pulsars
A graduate-level review article with links to other web-based resources.
- Pulsars (PS-file)
A review article about pulsars presented at the JENAM conference in Budapest 2003 (to be published by EDP Science). Click here for a PDF-file.
- Millisecond Pulsars as Tools of Fundamental Physics (PS-file)
A review article about millisecond pulsar timing and its application presented at the 302.WE-Heraeus-Seminar "Astrophysics, Clocks and Fundamental Constants" in Bad Honnef 2003 (to be published by Springer Lecture Notes in Physics). Click here for a PDF-file.
- The Sounds of Pulsars
Listen to the sounds made by the brightest pulsars in the sky, recorded using some of the largest radiotelescopes in the world.