Pulsars Could Provide "Galactic GPS" for Detecting Gravitational Waves
Who needs the Hitchhiker's Guide when you have spinning star cores? Millisecond pulsars left in the wake of supernovas could provide the basis for a type of "galactic GPS," radio astronomers say. A growing constellation of known pulsars could allow the scientists to make the first direct detection of gravitational waves -- a predicted consequence of Einstein's relativity theory. The concept might even help guide future spacecraft and explorers, not to mention errant galactic hitchhikers. The GPS that people know on Earth relies upon time-delay measurements from different satellite clocks to determine a certain location on Earth. But astronomers and future starfarers must look instead to the most precise clocks in the universe. Pulsars represent highly magnetized star cores which can spin faster than a kitchen blender at hundreds of times per second, and can rival human-made atomic clocks with their long-term consistency. Astronomers hope to find direct evidence of passing gravitational waves,...