P630 - The High Time Resolution Universe

Brief description The Parkes telescope has discovered more pulsars than all the rest of the telescopes put together. Astronomers from three different countries have developed a new digital data acquisition system to allow the telescope to see further into the galaxy than ever before for the fastest pulsars. Pulsars are the collapsed cores of once-massive stars, and spin up to an incredible 700 times per second! These are called millisecond pulsars. This survey will be the first to scan the richest regions of the Galaxy for millisecond pulsars. Once discovered, these millisecond pulsars allow scientists to tests theories of gravity, search for the signatures of massive black holes spiralling together and help determine how nuclear matter is bonded together. For more information on pulsars see: http://astronomy.swin.edu.au/cosmos/P/Pulsar