Astronomy: First Look at a Pulsar

In the 11 months since British astronomers announced the discovery of pulsars, scientists have done a brilliant detective job of piecing together the nature of the strange, regularly beeping radio sources. Their effort has been all the more remarkable because they have never actually seen a pulsar; all of their clues come from radio signals picked up by giant radio telescopes.

Now a new avenue of investigation has opened in the skies. Three University of Arizona astronomers have spotted a visible star that is located precisely where radio telescopes had detected a pulsar and is flashing at a rate identical...