Pulsar
PSR J0514-4002A
Millisecond pulsar · in the globular cluster NGC1851
A millisecond pulsar spinning 200 times per second: an old neutron star spun up again (“recycled”) by matter transferred from a companion. It shares a 18.785 days orbit with a neutron star. Period, spin-down, distance and orbit come from the ATNF Pulsar Catalogue; the beam geometry is illustrative.
| Type | Pulsar |
|---|---|
| Constellation | Columba |
| Period | 4.991 ms (200 Hz) |
| Period derivative | 7.0×10⁻²² s/s |
| Characteristic age | 113.0 billion years |
| Magnetic field | 6.0×10⁷ G |
| Spin-down luminosity | 2.2×10³² erg/s |
| Dispersion measure | 52.1 pc/cm³ |
| Distance | 11,950 pc (39.0 thousand ly) |
| Location | in the globular cluster NGC1851 |
| Companion | neutron star (estimated), ~1.11 M☉ |
| Orbital period | 18.785 days |
| Eccentricity | 0.8880 |
| Discovery | 2004 · misc |
| Source | ATNF Pulsar Catalogue |
| Right ascension (J2000) | 5h 14m 06.7s |
| Declination (J2000) | −40° 02′ 49″ |
In the sky
Visible from the whole Southern Hemisphere and north to latitude 50° N. South of latitude 50° S it never sets. It stands highest at midnight in December, the best time to observe it.
Through a telescope from Earth
Light's journey
The light you see tonight set out 39 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 691 million years.