Pulsar
PSR J0406+3039
Millisecond pulsar · binary system
A millisecond pulsar spinning 383 times per second: an old neutron star spun up again (“recycled”) by matter transferred from a companion. It shares a 6.956 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 | Taurus |
| Period | 2.609 ms (383 Hz) |
| Period derivative | 8.3×10⁻²¹ s/s |
| Characteristic age | 5.0 billion years |
| Magnetic field | 1.5×10⁸ G |
| Spin-down luminosity | 1.8×10³⁴ erg/s |
| Dispersion measure | 49.4 pc/cm³ |
| Distance | 1,624 pc (5.3 thousand ly) |
| Companion | helium white dwarf (estimated), ~0.096 M☉ |
| Orbital period | 6.956 days |
| Eccentricity | 0.000012 |
| Discovery | 2024 · gbncc |
| Source | ATNF Pulsar Catalogue |
| Right ascension (J2000) | 4h 06m 32.5s |
| Declination (J2000) | +30° 39′ 42″ |
In the sky
Visible from the whole Northern Hemisphere and south to latitude 59° S. North of latitude 59° N it never sets. It stands highest at midnight in November, the best time to observe it.
Through a telescope from Earth
Light's journey
The light you see tonight set out 5,297 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 94 million years.