Pulsar
PSR J0610-2100
Millisecond pulsar · binary system
A millisecond pulsar spinning 259 times per second: an old neutron star spun up again (“recycled”) by matter transferred from a companion. It shares a 6.86 h orbit with a very-low-mass companion. Period, spin-down, distance and orbit come from the ATNF Pulsar Catalogue; the beam geometry is illustrative.
| Type | Pulsar |
|---|---|
| Constellation | Lepus |
| Period | 3.861 ms (259 Hz) |
| Period derivative | 1.2×10⁻²⁰ s/s |
| Characteristic age | 5.0 billion years |
| Magnetic field | 2.2×10⁸ G |
| Spin-down luminosity | 8.5×10³³ erg/s |
| Dispersion measure | 60.7 pc/cm³ |
| Distance | 1,389 pc (4.5 thousand ly) |
| Companion | very-low-mass companion (estimated), ~0.025 M☉ |
| Orbital period | 6.86 h |
| Eccentricity | 0.000023 |
| Discovery | 2006 · pkshl, FermiBlind, gbncc |
| Source | ATNF Pulsar Catalogue |
| Right ascension (J2000) | 6h 10m 13.6s |
| Declination (J2000) | −21° 00′ 28″ |
In the sky
Visible from the whole Southern Hemisphere and north to latitude 69° N. South of latitude 69° 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 4,530 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 80 million years.