© Technology Review
Pulsars are rotating neutron stars that produce highly periodic bursts of radio waves. So accurate are pulsar signals that when they were discovered, astronomers gave serious credence to the idea that they were evidence of intelligent life elsewhere in the Universe because they were unmatched by anything physicists could make on Earth. This has lead to the widespread belief that pulsars are the most accurate clocks in the Universe.
40 years later, astronomers have yet to work out exactly how pulsars generate such accurate signals. But physicists on the other hand, have been working hard to find their own ways to better the performance of pulsars.
Today, John Hartnett and Andre Luiten at the University of Western Australia ask whether Earth-bound time pieces have usurped their astrophysical rivals as the best clocks in the Universe.
