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Few and far between

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Pulsars — fast-spinning neutron stars — are precision clocks provided by nature. Finding pulsars in the Galactic Centre orbiting Sagittarius A*, the closest supermassive black hole to the Earth, will offer unprecedented opportunities to test general relativity and its alternatives.

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Fig. 1: Tracking a pulsar as it orbits the central supermassive black hole.

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Acknowledgements

K.L. and R.E. acknowledge financial support by the European Research Council for the ERC Synergy Grant BlackHoleCam under contract no. 610058. Fig. 1 is based on a sketch by R.E. The telescope outline is based on a photograph by E. Middelberg.

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  1. Max Planck Institute for Radioastronomy, Bonn, Germany

    Kuo Liu & Ralph Eatough

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  1. Kuo Liu
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  2. Ralph Eatough
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Correspondence to Kuo Liu or Ralph Eatough.

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Liu, K., Eatough, R. Few and far between. Nat Astron 1, 812–813 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41550-017-0327-6

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