Pulsar
PSR J0742+4110
Millisecond pulsar · binary system
A millisecond pulsar spinning 319 times per second: an old neutron star spun up again (“recycled”) by matter transferred from a companion. It shares a 1.385 days 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 | Lynx |
| Period | 3.139 ms (319 Hz) |
| Period derivative | 6.7×10⁻²¹ s/s |
| Characteristic age | 7.4 billion years |
| Magnetic field | 1.5×10⁸ G |
| Spin-down luminosity | 8.5×10³³ erg/s |
| Dispersion measure | 20.8 pc/cm³ |
| Distance | 523 pc (1.7 thousand ly) |
| Companion | very-low-mass companion (estimated), ~0.067 M☉ |
| Orbital period | 1.385 days |
| Eccentricity | 0.000001 |
| Discovery | 2023 · gbncc |
| Source | ATNF Pulsar Catalogue |
| Right ascension (J2000) | 7h 42m 12.2s |
| Declination (J2000) | +41° 10′ 15″ |
In the sky
Visible from the whole Northern Hemisphere and south to latitude 49° S. North of latitude 49° N it never sets. It stands highest at midnight in January, the best time to observe it.
Through a telescope from Earth
Light's journey
The light you see tonight set out around the year 320. At the speed of Voyager 1, the fastest craft leaving the Solar System (16.9 km per second), the trip would take 30 million years.