The Lovell Telescope spends a large part of its time studying pulsars, some of the most extreme objects in the Universe. They have masses similar to our Sun, but are only 20 km across and can rotate at up to 700 times a second. They have extremely strong magnetic fields, and as they spin, their magnetic axes can sweep across the Earth and we detect a repeating flash of radio emission like a cosmic lighthouse. Ben will discuss pulsars and other transient phenomena in the radio sky including the mysterious fast radio bursts – brief flashes of radio waves coming from the distant Universe.

Presented by Ben Stappers