Pulsar
PSR J1301+0833
Millisecond pulsar · binary system
A millisecond pulsar spinning 542 times per second: an old neutron star spun up again (“recycled”) by matter transferred from a companion. It shares a 6.54 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 | 1.844 ms (542 Hz) |
| Period derivative | 1.1×10⁻²⁰ s/s |
| Characteristic age | 2.8 billion years |
| Magnetic field | 1.4×10⁸ G |
| Spin-down luminosity | 6.6×10³⁴ erg/s |
| Dispersion measure | 13.2 pc/cm³ |
| Distance | 1,233 pc (4.0 thousand ly) |
| Companion | very-low-mass companion (estimated), ~0.027 M☉ |
| Orbital period | 6.54 h |
| Discovery | 2012 · FermiAssoc, fast_gpps |
| Source | ATNF Pulsar Catalogue |
| Right ascension (J2000) | 13h 01m 38.3s |
| Declination (J2000) | +8° 33′ 58″ |
In the sky
Visible from the whole Northern Hemisphere and south to latitude 81° S. It stands highest at midnight in April, the best time to observe it.
Through a telescope from Earth
Light's journey
The light you see tonight set out 4,022 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 71 million years.