Pulsar
PSR J0210+5845
Radio pulsar · binary system
A neutron star spinning once every 1.77 seconds; the beams from its magnetic poles sweep across Earth on every turn. It shares a 17,000 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 | Perseus |
| Period | 1.766 s |
| Period derivative | 1.5×10⁻¹³ s/s |
| Characteristic age | 184 thousand years |
| Magnetic field | 1.7×10¹³ G |
| Spin-down luminosity | 1.1×10³³ erg/s |
| Dispersion measure | 76.8 pc/cm³ |
| Distance | 1,952 pc (6.4 thousand ly) |
| Companion | helium white dwarf (estimated), ~0.25 M☉ |
| Orbital period | 17,000 days |
| Eccentricity | 0.4600 |
| Discovery | 2019 · lotaas |
| Source | ATNF Pulsar Catalogue |
| Right ascension (J2000) | 2h 10m 55.4s |
| Declination (J2000) | +58° 45′ 04″ |
In the sky
Visible from the whole Northern Hemisphere and south to latitude 31° S. North of latitude 31° N 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 6,367 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 113 million years.