Pulsar
PSR J1221-0633
Millisecond pulsar · binary system
A millisecond pulsar spinning 517 times per second: an old neutron star spun up again (“recycled”) by matter transferred from a companion. It shares a 9.27 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 | Virgo |
| Period | 1.935 ms (517 Hz) |
| Period derivative | 5.3×10⁻²¹ s/s |
| Characteristic age | 5.8 billion years |
| Magnetic field | 1.0×10⁸ G |
| Spin-down luminosity | 2.9×10³⁴ erg/s |
| Dispersion measure | 16.4 pc/cm³ |
| Distance | 1,251 pc (4.1 thousand ly) |
| Companion | very-low-mass companion (estimated), ~0.015 M☉ |
| Orbital period | 9.27 h |
| Eccentricity | 0.000251 |
| Discovery | 2020 · gbncc, FermiAssoc |
| Source | ATNF Pulsar Catalogue |
| Right ascension (J2000) | 12h 21m 24.8s |
| Declination (J2000) | −6° 33′ 52″ |
In the sky
Visible from the whole Southern Hemisphere and north to latitude 83° N. 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 4,080 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 72 million years.