Joseph Hooton Taylor Jr. and Russell Alan Hulse discovered a pulsar in a binary star system. Changes in the timing of the pulses revealed the pulsar's orbital motion, making an otherwise unseen compact companion measurable.[ref]
Discovery of a Pulsar in a Binary System by Russell Alan Hulse and Joseph Hooton Taylor Jr.. p. L51, binary interpretation from pulse-period variations
Long-term pulse timing then tested general relativity. After accounting for other timing effects, the decreasing orbital period agreed with the loss of orbital energy predicted from gravitational radiation. The system supplied an indirect test of gravitational waves through their effect on an orbiting source.[ref]
Binary Pulsars and Relativistic Gravity by Joseph Hooton Taylor Jr.. Timing-model discussion and orbital-decay comparison with general relativity
Portrait of Joseph Hooton Taylor Jr.
. Betsy Devine (Betsythedevine), original photograph; Materialscientist, derivative crop. CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons. Source. Articles by others on the same topic
Joseph Hooton Taylor Jr. is an American astrophysicist known for his work in the field of gravitational physics and astrophysics. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1993, along with Russell Hulse, for the discovery of pulsar PSR 1913+16, which provided important experimental evidence for the existence of gravitational waves and contributed to the understanding of general relativity. Taylor's research has significantly advanced the study of neutron stars and relativistic astrophysics.