Pulsar
PSR J1137+7528
Millisecond pulsar · binary system
A millisecond pulsar spinning 398 times per second: an old neutron star spun up again (“recycled”) by matter transferred from a companion. It shares a 7.130 days orbit with a helium white dwarf. Period, spin-down, distance and orbit come from the ATNF Pulsar Catalogue; the beam geometry is illustrative.
| Type | Pulsar |
|---|---|
| Constellation | Draco |
| Period | 2.513 ms (398 Hz) |
| Period derivative | 3.2×10⁻²¹ s/s |
| Characteristic age | 12.3 billion years |
| Magnetic field | 9.1×10⁷ G |
| Spin-down luminosity | 8.1×10³³ erg/s |
| Dispersion measure | 29.2 pc/cm³ |
| Distance | 3,833 pc (12.5 thousand ly) |
| Companion | helium white dwarf (estimated), ~0.17 M☉ |
| Orbital period | 7.130 days |
| Eccentricity | 0.000044 |
| Discovery | 2016 · FermiAssoc |
| Source | ATNF Pulsar Catalogue |
| Right ascension (J2000) | 11h 37m 02.1s |
| Declination (J2000) | +75° 28′ 02″ |
In the sky
Visible from the whole Northern Hemisphere and south to latitude 15° S. North of latitude 15° N it never sets.
Through a telescope from Earth
Light's journey
The light you see tonight set out 13 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 222 million years.