Introduction to general relativity this energy loss would be too small to be detectable, but this energy loss was observed in 1974 in a binary pulsar called PSR1913+16. In such a system, one of the orbiting stars is a pulsar. This has two consequences: a pulsar is an extremely dense object known as a neutron star, for which gravitational wave emission is much stronger than for ordinary stars. Also, a pulsar emits a narrow beam of electromagnetic radiation from its magnetic poles. As the pulsar rotates, its beam sweeps over the Earth, where it is seen as a regular series of radio pulses, just
Beam dump beams to be absorbed can run into the megajoules. Materials used for such beam dumps include blocks of copper, aluminium, carbon, beryllium, and tungsten. The block often has a long conical hole, where the beam hits it, so as to spread the heating over a larger region of the block. If the beam to be absorbed is high-powered, these blocks may be up to several meters long and water-cooled. Pools of mercury have also been used. If the particles in the beam are energetic enough, induced radioactivity, production of neutrons by spalling, radiation embrittlement, and production of secondary particles can