Pulsar
PSR J1101-6424
Millisecond pulsar · binary system
A millisecond pulsar spinning 196 times per second: an old neutron star spun up again (“recycled”) by matter transferred from a companion. It shares a 9.612 days orbit with a CO white dwarf. Period, spin-down, distance and orbit come from the ATNF Pulsar Catalogue; the beam geometry is illustrative.
| Type | Pulsar |
|---|---|
| Constellation | Carina |
| Period | 5.109 ms (196 Hz) |
| Period derivative | 1.8×10⁻²¹ s/s |
| Characteristic age | 45.0 billion years |
| Magnetic field | 9.7×10⁷ G |
| Spin-down luminosity | 5.3×10³² erg/s |
| Dispersion measure | 207.4 pc/cm³ |
| Distance | 2,175 pc (7.1 thousand ly) |
| Companion | CO white dwarf (estimated), ~0.57 M☉ |
| Orbital period | 9.612 days |
| Eccentricity | 0.000026 |
| Discovery | 2015 · htru_pks |
| Source | ATNF Pulsar Catalogue |
| Right ascension (J2000) | 11h 01m 37.2s |
| Declination (J2000) | −64° 24′ 39″ |
In the sky
Visible from the whole Southern Hemisphere and north to latitude 26° N. South of latitude 26° S it never sets. It stands highest at midnight in March, the best time to observe it.
Through a telescope from Earth
Light's journey
The light you see tonight set out 7,094 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 126 million years.