Pulsar
PSR J0023+0923
Millisecond pulsar · binary system
A millisecond pulsar spinning 328 times per second: an old neutron star spun up again (“recycled”) by matter transferred from a companion. It shares a 3.33 h orbit with a very-low-mass companion. Period, spin-down, distance and orbit come from the ATNF Pulsar Catalogue; the beam geometry is illustrative.
| Type | Pulsar |
|---|---|
| Constellation | Pisces |
| Period | 3.050 ms (328 Hz) |
| Period derivative | 1.1×10⁻²⁰ s/s |
| Characteristic age | 4.2 billion years |
| Magnetic field | 1.9×10⁸ G |
| Spin-down luminosity | 1.6×10³⁴ erg/s |
| Dispersion measure | 14.3 pc/cm³ |
| Distance | 1,818 pc (5.9 thousand ly) |
| Companion | very-low-mass companion (estimated), ~0.019 M☉ |
| Orbital period | 3.33 h |
| Eccentricity | 0.000007 |
| Discovery | 2011 · FermiAssoc, gbt350, fast_gpps |
| Source | ATNF Pulsar Catalogue |
| Right ascension (J2000) | 0h 23m 16.9s |
| Declination (J2000) | +9° 23′ 24″ |
In the sky
Visible from the whole Northern Hemisphere and south to latitude 81° S. It stands highest at midnight in September, the best time to observe it.
Through a telescope from Earth
Light's journey
The light you see tonight set out 5,930 years ago. At that time the first farming villages were being founded; there was no writing yet. At the speed of Voyager 1, the fastest craft leaving the Solar System (16.9 km per second), the trip would take 105 million years.