Until recently transient astrophysical events have been averaged out by the need for long exposure times. Better CCDs and better computing capabilities have opened up a new domain in astronomy - high-time resolution observations. This talk will describe some of the things we are finding or expect to find in this new area.

Dame Jocelyn Bell Burnell

Dame Jocelyn Bell Burnell is a Visiting Professor of Astrophysics at The University of Oxford, and former President of the Royal Astronomical Society 2002-2004, and President of The Institute of Physics 2008-2010.

Jocelyn is best known for her discovery of pulsars, an observation which, made together with her supervisor, Antony Hewish, is considered to be one of the greatest astronomical discoveries of the twentieth century.

In 1967, Jocelyn made her discovery using a telescope that she and Antony had originally built to study the recently detected star-like quasars. She noted a signal that pulsed once every second — ‘Little Green Man 1’ — that was later determined to be a pulsar. Antony went on to receive the 1974 Nobel Prize in Physics for his role in the discovery.