Brief description Neutron stars contain more mass than the Sun collapsed into the size of a city. Many of these neutron stars rotate hundreds of times per second and emit beams of radio waves that we can detect on Earth, in lighthouse-like fashion. Traditionally, these extreme objects are found by searching for periodic signals recorded by single dish telescopes, such as Parkes. However, recently we showed that neutron stars can also be identified in radio images with observations taken by the Australian SKA Pathfinder, ASKAP. The new discovery is a neutron star that rotates 370 times per second, named PSR J1431-6328. We propose to use Parkes to observe this neutron star, and find out if it is in a binary with another star. Eventually, we would like to use this pulsar to detect gravitational waves coming from the early Universe.
- Local : csiro:P1058