Pulsar
PSR J1146-6610
Millisecond pulsar · binary system
A millisecond pulsar spinning 269 times per second: an old neutron star spun up again (“recycled”) by matter transferred from a companion. It shares a 62.771 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 | Musca |
| Period | 3.722 ms (269 Hz) |
| Period derivative | 7.9×10⁻²¹ s/s |
| Characteristic age | 7.4 billion years |
| Magnetic field | 1.7×10⁸ G |
| Spin-down luminosity | 6.1×10³³ erg/s |
| Dispersion measure | 133.8 pc/cm³ |
| Distance | 1,793 pc (5.8 thousand ly) |
| Companion | helium white dwarf (estimated), ~0.23 M☉ |
| Orbital period | 62.771 days |
| Eccentricity | 0.0074 |
| Discovery | 2012 · pksmb |
| Source | ATNF Pulsar Catalogue |
| Right ascension (J2000) | 11h 46m 58.4s |
| Declination (J2000) | −66° 10′ 51″ |
In the sky
Visible from the whole Southern Hemisphere and north to latitude 24° N. South of latitude 24° 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 5,848 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 104 million years.