Pulsar
PSR J0024-7204ai
Millisecond pulsar · in the globular cluster 47Tuc(NGC104)
A millisecond pulsar spinning 77 times per second: an old neutron star spun up again (“recycled”) by matter transferred from a companion. It shares a 1.653 days orbit with a CO white dwarf. Period, spin-down, distance and orbit come from the ATNF Pulsar Catalogue; the beam geometry is illustrative.
| Type | Pulsar |
|---|---|
| Constellation | Tucana |
| Period | 13.027 ms (77 Hz) |
| Dispersion measure | 24.4 pc/cm³ |
| Distance | 2,539 pc (8.3 thousand ly) |
| Location | in the globular cluster 47Tuc(NGC104) |
| Companion | CO white dwarf (estimated), ~0.74 M☉ |
| Orbital period | 1.653 days |
| Eccentricity | 0.1791 |
| Discovery | 2026 · misc |
| Source | ATNF Pulsar Catalogue |
| Right ascension (J2000) | 0h 24m 03.4s |
| Declination (J2000) | −72° 04′ 56″ |
In the sky
Visible from the whole Southern Hemisphere and north to latitude 18° N. South of latitude 18° S it never sets. 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 8,281 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 147 million years.