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Science 11 February 2005:
Vol. 307. no. 5711, pp. 855 - 856
DOI: 10.1126/science.1109555
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Perspectives

ASTRONOMY:
A Pulsar Bonanza

Duncan R. Lorimer

Pulsars are rapidly spinning neutron stars that can provide insights into general relativity, galactic astronomy, planetary physics, and even cosmology. Globular clusters-dense conglomerations of 100,000 or more stars-tend to contain many such objects, but their detection is not always straightforward. In his Perspective, Lorimer highlights the discovery by Ransom et al. of 21 new pulsars in a globular cluster called Terzan 5; before this discovery only three pulsars were known in this cluster. The pulsars are spinning with millisecond periods and differ from previously discovered pulsar populations in other clusters. Radio observations indicate that Terzan 5 may yield even more pulsars in the near future.

The author is at Jodrell Bank Observatory, University of Manchester, Macclesfield SK11 9DL, UK. E-mail: duncan.lorimer{at}manchester.ac.uk

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Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)