Ep. 784: Pulsar-Powered Science

Astronomy Cast

Natural Sciences, Science, Astronomy

4.8 • 3.4K Ratings

🗓️ 2 March 2026

⏱️ 34 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Astronomy Cast Ep. 784: Pulsar-Powered Science By Fraser Cain & Dr. Pamela Gay Streamed live on Feb 16, 2026. Pulsars are dead stars and fascinating in their own right, but astronomers can use their predictable rotation for exploring the cosmos in a series of amazing ways. We can detect gravitational waves, navigate the solar system, test general relativity and find exoplanets. Pulsars are the time keepers of the sky, with their precise ticking allowing researchers to track gravitational waves, find exotic planets, and study weird relativistic effects. Come learn about how pulsars can be used to explore our universe. Image credit: NASA/CXC/ASU/J. Hester et al., HST/ASU/J. Hester et al. This show is supported through people like you on Patreon.com/AstronomyCast In this episode, we'd like to thank: Burry Gowen, Eric Lee, Jeanette Wink, Michael Purcell, Andrew Poelstra, David, David Rossetter, Ed, Gerhard Schwarzer, Jason Kwong, Joe McTee, Sergey Manouilov, Siggi Kemmler, Sergio Sancevero

Transcript

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0:00.0	I'm
0:02.0	Oh
0:03.0	Oh Thank you. I'm going to Astronomycast, Episode 784, Pulsar-powered science.
0:53.7	Welcome to Astronomycast, our weekly facts-based journey through the cosmos, where we help you understand not only what we know, but how we know what we know. I'm Praternian. I'm the publisher of the universe today with me, as always, is Dr. Pamela Gay, senior scientist for the Planetary Science Institute and the director of Cosmo Quest. Hey, Pamela, how you doing? I am well, and I need to know what
1:11.7	stage of spring you have encountered already. Snow and snow drops. So both. So winter is still here,
1:22.2	and yet we also are starting to get snow drops and other early spring flowers coming through.
1:27.6	Excellent. Excellent.
1:28.5	Yeah.
1:29.6	But I wanted to just mention briefly that many years ago, we were gifted telescopes.
1:38.0	Yes.
1:38.7	By Dustin Gibson.
1:41.1	And both of us found the telescopes complicated, the software unusable, and we both
1:46.8	use them for hanging clothes, I'm sure. We used the refractor that he gave us. On a completely
1:54.8	different mount using an eyepiece and not a, not the camera system. system well I finally was able to get the telescope
2:04.4	operational get the camera going get the mount going and make it all fully functional from my
2:10.5	laptop and so I'm able to sit a Mac laptop that was the thing that foiled me is like...
2:17.5	So I had to buy, I had a Raspberry Pi kicking around and I was able to install all the
2:22.8	control software on the Raspberry Pi. And then I bolt that to the telescope mount.
2:26.9	I put the thing outside and then I control the telescope from my Mac while I'm just sitting
2:32.5	inside watching the telescope move around.
2:35.5	And it's still herky jerky and I've got all kinds of problems to it. But it is kind of
2:40.6	amazing to be able to use this telescope in sort of the, what it was originally intended to do.
	...

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