Taylor's thesis work was onlunar occultation measurements. About the time he completed his Ph.D.,Jocelyn Bell (who is also a Quaker) discovered the first radio pulsars with a telescope nearCambridge,England.
Taylor immediately went to theNational Radio Astronomy Observatory's telescopes inGreen Bank, West Virginia, and participated in the discovery of the first pulsars discovered outside Cambridge. Since then, he has worked on all aspects of pulsar astrophysics.
In 1974, Hulse and Taylor discovered the firstpulsar in abinary system, namedPSR B1913+16 after its position in the sky, during a survey for pulsars at theArecibo Observatory inPuerto Rico. Although it was not understood at the time, this was also the first of what are now calledrecycled pulsars:Neutron stars that have been spun-up to fast spin rates by the transfer of mass onto their surfaces from a companion star.
The orbit of this binary system is slowly shrinking as it loses energy because of emission ofgravitational radiation, causing its orbital period to speed up slightly. The rate of shrinkage can be precisely predicted from Einstein'sGeneral Theory of Relativity, and over a thirty-year period Taylor and his colleagues have made measurements that match this prediction to much better than one percent accuracy. This was the first confirmation of the existence of gravitational radiation. There are now scores of binary pulsars known, and independent measurements have confirmed Taylor's results.
Joe Taylor first obtained hisamateur radio license as a teenager, which led him to the field of radio astronomy. Taylor is well known in the field ofamateur radio weak signal communication and has been assigned thecall sign K1JT by theFCC. He had previously held the callsigns K2ITP, WA1LXQ, W1HFV, and VK2BJX (the latter inAustralia).[3]
His amateur radio accomplishments have included mounting an 'expedition' in April 2010 to use theArecibo Radio Telescope to conductmoonbounce with Amateurs around the world using voice,Morse code, and digital communications.[3]
He has been active in developing several computer programs and communications protocols, includingWSPR andWSJT ("Weak Signal/Joe Taylor"), a software package and protocol suite that utilizes computer-generated messages in conjunction with radiotransceivers to communicate over long distances with other amateur radio operators.
WSJT is useful for passing short messages via non-traditional radio communications methods, such asmoonbounce andmeteor scatter and other lowsignal-to-noise ratio paths. It is also useful for extremely long-distance contacts usingvery low power transmissions.
Taylor was among the first group ofMacArthur Fellows. He has served on many boards, committees, and panels, co-chairing the Decadal Panel of that produced the reportAstronomy and Astrophysics in the New Millennium that established theUnited States's national priorities in astronomy and astrophysics for the period 2000–2010. He was a guest of honor in the 2009 International Physics Olympiad.
^Seife, Charles (11 October 1995)."Spin doctor: Nobel physicist Joseph Taylor takes the 'pulse' of dying stars".Princeton Alumni Weekly. Retrieved26 October 2007.Born in Philadelphia in 1941, he grew up on a peach farm in Cinnaminson, New Jersey, that has been in his family for more than two centuries – "a plot of green," he recalls, in the industrial belt along the Delaware River north of Camden. ... As a high school student at Moorestown (N.J.) Friends, Taylor excelled in mathematics, a subject he pursued at Haverford College before switching to physics.
