pulsar clock

plural pulsar clocks

1. The regular timing of pulses from a pulsar.

   Ultimately, rotational instabilities intrinsic to the pulsar known as timing noise can become important, and the internal stability of the pulsar clock is limited.

   2005, D. R. Lorimer, M. Kramer, Handbook of Pulsar Astronomy, →ISBN, page 34

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   We could precisely measure the orbit and the predicted relativistic effects simply by precisely measuring the changing "ticking" of this pulsar clock as it moved around in its orbit.

   2004, Magdolna Hargittai & Istv n Hargittai, Candid Science IV: Conversations with Famous Physicists, →ISBN, page 674

   The pulsar PSR B1937+21 has been observed over a period of several years by Kaspi et al. (1994b) and Cognard et al. (1995); although, on a time scale of a few months, this pulsar clock fits a simple model within the reading accuracy of about 100 nanoseconds, an unpredictable wandering limits its accuracy over a period of a year or more (Figure 5.6).

   2006, Andrew G. Lyne, Francis Graham-Smith, Pulsar Astronomy, →ISBN, pages 62–63

   When the two bodies are in close proximity, the gravitational field is stronger, the passage of time is slowed– and the time between pulses (or ticks) is lengthened. Then as the pulsar clock travels more slowly through the weakest part of.the field it regains time.

   2014, John Hussey, Bang to Eternity and Betwixt: Cosmos

2. A clock built to measure time based on the regular pulses from a pulsar.