Pulsar
PSR J1317-0157
Millisecond pulsar · binary system
A millisecond pulsar spinning 344 times per second: an old neutron star spun up again (“recycled”) by matter transferred from a companion. It shares a 2.14 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 | 2.908 ms (344 Hz) |
| Period derivative | 5.5×10⁻²¹ s/s |
| Characteristic age | 8.4 billion years |
| Magnetic field | 1.3×10⁸ G |
| Spin-down luminosity | 8.8×10³³ erg/s |
| Dispersion measure | 29.4 pc/cm³ |
| Distance | 25,000 pc (81.5 thousand ly) |
| Companion | very-low-mass companion (estimated), ~0.020 M☉ |
| Orbital period | 2.14 h |
| Eccentricity | 0.000500 |
| Discovery | 2020 · gbncc |
| Source | ATNF Pulsar Catalogue |
| Right ascension (J2000) | 13h 17m 40.4s |
| Declination (J2000) | −1° 57′ 30″ |
In the sky
Visible from the whole Southern Hemisphere and north to latitude 88° N. 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 82 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 1.4 billion years.