We are observing signals from a type of star known as a pulsar, one of the most extreme objects in the Universe. A pulsar is born during a supernova – a dramatic explosion that happens when a bright star many times bigger than our Sun runs out of fuel. The heavy core of the star collapses under its own weight into something more dense than the nucleus of an atom. Imagine squashing our enormous Sun into something about the size of a large city!

Each pulsar has a magnetic field that is millions of times stronger than any that can be produced here on Earth. Like a cosmic lighthouse, this magnetic field generates beams that sweep across the Galaxy with each rotation of the star. Unlike the steady beam of a lighthouse, a pulsar's beam crackles and pops with lightning-like discharges of energy. By studying this highly dynamic signal, we learn about what generates the radio waves and what happens as they travel through the turbulent plasma in the pulsar's strong magnetic field.

We have developed new techniques that enable us to study the weak signals from pulsars that have been overlooked to date. Using a cutting-edge receiver at The Dish, we are now able to survey a wide variety of pulsars with the aim of better understanding strong magnetic fields and the behaviour of high-energy particles of matter and antimatter, which stream along a pulsar's magnetic field lines at close to the speed of light.