This sets the stage for the quantification of quantum chemistry, thereby dramatically increasing the usability of quantum chemical calculations as a predictive tool. Administration Bldg, Lecture Rm. The discovery of pulsars, or neutron stars, took the astronomical community by surprise, so bizarre are these objects. They have about the same mass as our sun but are only about 10 km in radius. A piece about the size of a sugar cube would weigh 100 million tons.
Neutron stars can rotate hundreds of times per second.
Some 30 years later these objects have stretched our understanding of the behavior of matter at high densities, high speeds, and high fields. They serve as extremely precise clocks against which to check our own clocks, and with which to carry out high precision experiments. Some of the highlights from this new branch of astronomy will be presented and explained. Jocelyn Bell-Burnell and Antony Hewish discovered the first pulsar in 1967. The Nobel Prize was awarded for the discovery in 1974.