CSIRO scientists have written software that could guide
spacecraft to Alpha Centauri, show that the planet Nibiru doesn’t exist … and
prove that the Earth goes around the Sun.
Dr George Hobbs (CSIRO) and his colleagues study pulsars —
small spinning stars that deliver regular 'blips' or 'pulses' of radio waves
and, sometimes, X-rays.
Usually the astronomers are interested in measuring, very
precisely, when the pulsar pulses arrive in the solar system. Slight deviations
from the expected arrival times can give clues about the behaviour of a pulsar
itself, or whether it is orbiting another star, for instance.