Pulsar
PSR J0034-0534
Millisecond pulsar · binary system
A millisecond pulsar spinning 533 times per second: an old neutron star spun up again (“recycled”) by matter transferred from a companion. It shares a 1.589 days orbit with a helium white dwarf. Period, spin-down, distance and orbit come from the ATNF Pulsar Catalogue; the beam geometry is illustrative.
| Type | Pulsar |
|---|---|
| Constellation | Cetus |
| Period | 1.877 ms (533 Hz) |
| Period derivative | 5.0×10⁻²¹ s/s |
| Characteristic age | 6.0 billion years |
| Magnetic field | 9.8×10⁷ G |
| Spin-down luminosity | 3.0×10³⁴ erg/s |
| Dispersion measure | 13.8 pc/cm³ |
| Distance | 1,349 pc (4.4 thousand ly) |
| Companion | helium white dwarf (estimated), ~0.17 M☉ |
| Orbital period | 1.589 days |
| Eccentricity | 0.000004 |
| Discovery | 1994 · pks70, FermiBlind, gbncc |
| Source | ATNF Pulsar Catalogue |
| Right ascension (J2000) | 0h 34m 21.8s |
| Declination (J2000) | −5° 34′ 37″ |
In the sky
Visible from the whole Southern Hemisphere and north to latitude 84° N. 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 4,400 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 78 million years.