An Etymological Dictionary of Astronomy and Astrophysics

A pulsar in a → binary system, the companion of which often being a → neutron star or a → white dwarf. The only known binary system with two pulsars
components is the → double pulsar. As of 2010 about 70 binary pulsars have been identified. They are ideal laboratories for testing and studying the effects predicted by → general relativity, such as → spin precession, → Shapiro time delay, and → gravitational waves. The prototype, called PSR 1913+16, was discovered in 1974 by
Russell A. Hulse and Joseph H. Taylor, Jr., who received the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1993. → Hulse-Taylor pulsar.

See also: → binary; → pulsar.