High School Student Discovers Strange Pulsar-Like Object

[n2doc]

Written by Nancy Atkinson


A high-school student from West Virginia has discovered a new astronomical object, a strange type of neutron star called a rotating radio transient. Lucas Bolyard, a sophomore at South Harrison High School in Clarksburg, WV, made the discovery while participating in a project in which students are trained to search through data from the Robert C. Byrd Green Bank Telescope (GBT). Bolyard made the discovery in March, after he already had studied more than 2,000 data plots from the GBT and found nothing.

The project is the Pulsar Search Collaboratory (PSC), which allows students to do real scientific research by looking at data from the GBT, the largest radio telescope in the US.


Lucas Bolyard CREDIT: NRAO/AUI/NSF

"Lucas is one of the most enthusiastic students involved in the project," said Duncan Lorimer, astronomer from West Virginia University. "He's one of these youngsters that never gives up, he's very persistent and he has all the attributes that a scientist should have."

Rotating radio transients are thought to be similar to pulsars, superdense neutron stars that are the corpses of massive stars that exploded as supernovae. Pulsars are known for their lighthouse-like beams of radio waves that sweep through space as the neutron star rotates, creating a pulse as the beam sweeps by a radio telescope. While pulsars emit these radio waves continuously, rotating radio transients emit only sporadically, one burst at a time, with as much as several hours between bursts. Because of this, they are difficult to discover and observe, with the first one only discovered in 2006.

more:
http://www.universetoday.com/2009/09/22/high-school-student-discovers-strange-pulsar-like-object/

[appamado amata padam]

1. Since he's made a scientific discovery,

does he get to not be called a "youngster" anymore?

Anyway, great story.

[yoyossarian]

3. I dunno, looks like a youngster to me...

Kid's gotta be 15, 16 years old...

Yeah, I was a youngster once, back in the OLD Ol' Days...

This is one SMART youngster, too!... not some ding-dang no-account whipper-snapper,
the kind that should STAY OFF MY LAWN, DAMMIT! This kid is the goods, I tell ya!

The lil' monkey's got a big BIG brain! This boy's goin' places, and no lie!

Very inspiring! I wish him well!

Still a kid, though...

[appamado amata padam]

4. Didn't think it was a big deal,

but I always thought of "youngster" as a term for little kids.

If someone would've called me a youngster when I was 15, I would've been a little peeved, haha.

Maybe just me.

[yoyossarian]

5. Ha! I guess it really IS a question of age...

:toast:

K&R!

[appamado amata padam]

6. It's all relative -

just reading about the 113-year-old man made me feel like maybe I do have time to get a couple of things done, hahaha.

[qazplm]

7. I'm about to turn 40

but the old Colonels still call me youngster so I think it's a relative thing.

[appamado amata padam]

8. OK; maybe it's just me. :-) nt

[Xipe Totec]

2. KUDOS! n/t