'Pulsar' is short for 'pulsating star' — a neutron star spinning with clockwork electromagnetic pulses.
A rapidly rotating neutron star that emits regular pulses of radio waves or other electromagnetic radiation at precise intervals.
Coined by the journalist Anthony Michaelis in the Daily Telegraph from 'puls(ating st)ar,' blending 'pulsating' and 'star.' 'Pulsate' comes from Latin 'pulsare' (to beat, to strike repeatedly), frequentative of 'pellere' (to push, to drive, to strike), from PIE *pel- (to push, to drive, to strike). The first pulsar was discovered by Jocelyn Bell Burnell and Antony Hewish in 1967; Bell Burnell initially labeled the signal 'LGM-1' (Little Green Men
The first pulsar was discovered by graduate student Jocelyn Bell Burnell in 1967, who initially nicknamed the signal 'LGM-1' — Little Green Men 1 — because its clockwork regularity seemed artificial. Her supervisor Antony Hewish received the Nobel Prize for the discovery in 1974; Bell Burnell did not, in one of the most controversial omissions in Nobel history.