Pulsar
PSR J1259-8148
Millisecond pulsar · binary system
A millisecond pulsar spinning 479 times per second: an old neutron star spun up again (“recycled”) by matter transferred from a companion. It shares a 4.46 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 | Chamaeleon |
| Period | 2.086 ms (479 Hz) |
| Period derivative | 3.3×10⁻²¹ s/s |
| Characteristic age | 9.9 billion years |
| Magnetic field | 8.4×10⁷ G |
| Spin-down luminosity | 1.5×10³⁴ erg/s |
| Dispersion measure | 44.3 pc/cm³ |
| Distance | 1,426 pc (4.7 thousand ly) |
| Companion | very-low-mass companion (estimated), ~0.038 M☉ |
| Orbital period | 4.46 h |
| Discovery | 2026 · meerkat_trapum |
| Source | ATNF Pulsar Catalogue |
| Right ascension (J2000) | 12h 59m 31.6s |
| Declination (J2000) | −81° 48′ 51″ |
In the sky
Visible from the whole Southern Hemisphere and north to latitude 8° N. South of latitude 8° S it never sets.
Through a telescope from Earth
Light's journey
The light you see tonight set out 4,651 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 83 million years.