| Description |
Neutron stars are the result of stellar explosions (supernovae) which occur in massive stars once they have reached the ends of their lives. Most pulsars are detectable by their regular intervals of pulsed emission (occurring every few seconds, up to several hundred times a second!), which happens because the star is rotating and flashing a beam of radio light across Earth. Since the first discovery of pulsars we have discovered some very sporadically-emitting pulsars, which are not emitting all the time. Understanding the reason for this may assist us in explaining the origin of radio emission in neutron stars. We are monitoring a small subset of these sources to determine their age, magnetic field strengths, and emissive properties. These observations should lead to a more complete physical understanding of these strange behaviours and pulsar-emission origins.
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