Einstein@Home discovers 24 new pulsars in archival data
The combined computing power of 200,000 private PCs helps
astronomers take an inventory of the Milky Way. The Einstein@Home project
connects home and office PCs of volunteers from around the world to a global
supercomputer. Using this computer cloud, an international team lead by
scientists from the Max Planck Institutes for Gravitational Physics and for
Radio Astronomy analysed archival data from the CSIRO Parkes radio telescope in
Australia. Using new search methods, the global computer network discovered 24
pulsars – extraordinary stellar remnants with extreme physical properties.
These can be used as testbeds for Einstein's general theory of relativity and
could help to complete our picture of the pulsar population.