One problem that radio telescopes have is that they often pick up human-made radio signals from Earth. They can amplify the signals they receive so that they are made stronger, and these signals can then be transformed into both audio and video signals that are interpreted by astronomers. Unlike optical telescopes they can operate night and day, and also during cloudy weather. These 'telescopes' receive radio waves from space. Instead, radio telescopes typically consist of radar dishes, or of very large arrays of wires suspended above the ground. Radio telescopes do not have lenses and they are not shaped like tubes. Therefore they are not like the optical telescopes we normally associate with astronomy. Radio telescopes receive radio waves, not light. The history of radio astronomy and the development of radio telescopes is important to the discovery of both quasars and pulsars. This is because the use of radio telescopes to search for quasars led to the discovery of pulsars. The discovery of pulsars has as its background the whole of radio astronomy, and the discovery of And although she did not share the Nobel Prize in Physics given to her advisor for the discovery of pulsars, she has since come to be recognized for something perhaps more significant: for helping to pave the way for women in all fields of science. Rarely had a female scientist gained so much fame for a scientific discovery. For women scientists, Bell Burnell's discovery was to be an inspiration.

Since their discovery, pulsars have been recognized by astronomers as crucial to understanding the nature of stars, especially exotic stars like black holes. Her discovery had considerable impact, both for astronomers in general and women scientists in particular. Pulsars were discovered by Jocelyn Bell Burnell (1934-), then a graduate student at the University of Cambridge who was using her advisor's radio telescope to search for quasars. The discovery of pulsars in 1967 can be said to have been almost accidental.

Quasar vs pulsar game