Pulsar
PSR J0952-0607
Millisecond pulsar · binary system
A millisecond pulsar spinning 707 times per second: an old neutron star spun up again (“recycled”) by matter transferred from a companion. It shares a 6.42 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 | Sextans |
| Period | 1.414 ms (707 Hz) |
| Period derivative | 4.8×10⁻²¹ s/s |
| Characteristic age | 4.7 billion years |
| Magnetic field | 8.3×10⁷ G |
| Spin-down luminosity | 6.7×10³⁴ erg/s |
| Dispersion measure | 22.4 pc/cm³ |
| Distance | 7,600 pc (24.8 thousand ly) |
| Companion | very-low-mass companion (estimated), ~0.022 M☉ |
| Orbital period | 6.42 h |
| Discovery | 2017 · misc |
| Source | ATNF Pulsar Catalogue |
| Right ascension (J2000) | 9h 52m 08.3s |
| Declination (J2000) | −6° 07′ 24″ |
In the sky
Visible from the whole Southern Hemisphere and north to latitude 84° N. It stands highest at midnight in February, the best time to observe it.
Through a telescope from Earth
Light's journey
The light you see tonight set out 25 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 440 million years.