For 10 months, a SETI Institute–led team watched pulsar PSR J0332+5434 (also called B0329+54) to study how its radio signal "twinkles" as it passes through gas between the star and Earth. The team used the Allen Telescope Array (ATA) to take measurements between 900 and 1956 MHz and observed slow, significant changes in the twinkling pattern, or scintillation, over time.

Pulsars are spinning remnants of massive stars that emit flashes of radio waves, a type of light, in very precise and regular rhythms. Due to their high rotation speed and incredible density. Scientists can use sensitive radio telescopes to measure the exact times at which pulses arrive in the search for patterns that can indicate phenomena such as low-frequency gravitational waves. However, gas in interstellar space can scatter a pulsar’s radio waves—spreading them out and slightly delaying when each pulse is received. Understanding and correcting these tiny, changing delays, which can be as small as tens of nanoseconds (a nanosecond is one-billionth of a second), helps keep pulsar timing as precise as possible.

Just as starlight “twinkles” in Earth’s atmosphere, pulsar radio waves also “twinkle”, or scintillate, in space. As the signal travels through clouds of electrons between the pulsar and Earth, it creates bright and dim patches across radio frequencies. These patterns aren’t static; they evolve as the pulsar, the gas, and Earth move relative to each other. This twinkling delays the pulses, and the amount of scintillation matches the extent of the delay. By frequently monitoring a single bright, nearby pulsar, the team observed these patterns shift and translated them into tiny timing delays. These methods can then correct the delays that matter for the most precise pulsar experiments.

Like many kids, Shaan Patel spent nights staring at the sky in awe, wondering what existed beyond the stars. That curiosity has never faded.

Now, he’s turning it into a career, earning his Ph.D. in physics from The University of Texas at Arlington. Patel will walk across the graduation stage Friday morning at Globe Life Field, a defining moment for an out-of-state student who has become a standout example of what’s possible at UT Arlington.

Much remains to be known about the chemical composition of small asteroids. Their potential to harbour valuable metals, materials from the early solar system, and the possibility of obtaining a geochemical record of their parent bodies makes them promising candidates for future use of space resources. A team led by the Institute of Space Sciences (ICE-CSIC) has analyzed samples of C-type asteroids, carbon-rich minor bodies of the Solar System, progenitors of the carbonaceous chondrites. Their findings, published in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, support the idea that these asteroids can serve as crucial material sources and identify their parent bodies, as well as for planning future missions and developing new technologies for resource exploitation.