The first pulsar was discovered in 1967, when British astrophysicist Jocelyn Bell Burnell noticed a strange radio signal flashing about once every 1.33 seconds from a distant region of outer space. Burnell and her colleagues were mystified at first, briefly considering the possibility that this was a transmission from an alien civilization – but they soon realized that they had actually found a swiftly rotating neutron star, which they named CP-1919. The pulsar became part of music history 12 years later, when post-punk pioneers Joy Division used a graph of CP-1919’s signal for the cover of their debut album, Unknown Pleasures. Read our original review of the landmark album at RollingStone.com.
GIF via intothecontinuum