Pulsar
PSR J0203-0150
Millisecond pulsar · binary system
A millisecond pulsar spinning 193 times per second: an old neutron star spun up again (“recycled”) by matter transferred from a companion. It shares a 49.964 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 | 5.173 ms (193 Hz) |
| Period derivative | 1.4×10⁻²⁰ s/s |
| Characteristic age | 5.7 billion years |
| Magnetic field | 2.8×10⁸ G |
| Spin-down luminosity | 4.1×10³³ erg/s |
| Dispersion measure | 19.2 pc/cm³ |
| Distance | 1,837 pc (6.0 thousand ly) |
| Companion | helium white dwarf (estimated), ~0.14 M☉ |
| Orbital period | 49.964 days |
| Eccentricity | 0.000194 |
| Discovery | 2023 · fast_crafts |
| Source | ATNF Pulsar Catalogue |
| Right ascension (J2000) | 2h 03m 33.9s |
| Declination (J2000) | −1° 50′ 02″ |
In the sky
Visible from the whole Southern Hemisphere and north to latitude 88° N. 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 5,992 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 106 million years.