Jocelyn Bell Burnell

Jocelyn Bell Burnell was born in Northern Ireland in 1943. As a girl, she loved looking at the stars. She grew up to be an astronomer. In 1967, she found a strange signal from space. It turned out to be a new kind of star called a pulsar.

Finding Pulsars

Bell Burnell was a student when she made her big discovery. She used a large radio telescope to look at the sky. She saw a strange pulsing signal coming from far away. At first, they joked it might be aliens. It was really a spinning star called a pulsar.

A photograph of the astronomer Jocelyn Bell Burnell.
A photograph of the astronomer Jocelyn Bell Burnell. (Launch_of_IYA_2009,_Paris_-_Grygar,_Bell_Burnell.jpg: Astronomical Institute, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic derivative work: Anrie (talk) / Wikimedia Commons)

A Life in Science

The Nobel Prize for her find went to her teachers, not to her. Many people thought this was unfair. Bell Burnell kept working and did great things. She has helped many young scientists, especially girls. She has won many other big awards.

Fun Facts

  • She failed an important school exam when she was 11 but kept going.
  • She once gave her 3 million dollar science prize money to help others.
  • Pulsars act like giant lighthouses spinning in space.

Did You Know?

A pulsar spins so fast that it can flash hundreds of times every second.