Pulsar
PSR J0058-7218
Millisecond pulsar · in the remnant IKT 16
A millisecond pulsar spinning 46 times per second: an old neutron star spun up again (“recycled”) by matter transferred from a companion. Its radio beams do not sweep across Earth; its pulses are seen only in X-rays or gamma rays. Not in the Milky Way but in the Small Magellanic Cloud. Period, spin-down, distance and orbit come from the ATNF Pulsar Catalogue; the beam geometry is illustrative.
| Type | Pulsar |
|---|---|
| Constellation | Tucana |
| Host galaxy | Small Magellanic Cloud |
| Period | 21.766 ms (46 Hz) |
| Period derivative | 2.9×10⁻¹⁴ s/s |
| Characteristic age | 12 thousand years |
| Magnetic field | 8.0×10¹¹ G |
| Spin-down luminosity | 1.1×10³⁸ erg/s |
| Distance | 59,700 pc (194.7 thousand ly) |
| Location | in the remnant IKT 16 |
| Discovery | 2021 · misc |
| Source | ATNF Pulsar Catalogue |
| Right ascension (J2000) | 0h 58m 16.7s |
| Declination (J2000) | −72° 18′ 06″ |
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 October, the best time to observe it.
Through a telescope from Earth
Light's journey
The light you see tonight set out 195 thousand years ago. At that time Homo sapiens was spreading out of Africa; there was no farming yet. At the speed of Voyager 1, the fastest craft leaving the Solar System (16.9 km per second), the trip would take 3.5 billion years.