Pulsar
PSR J1326-4728A
Millisecond pulsar · in the globular cluster OmegaCen(NGC5139)
A millisecond pulsar spinning 243 times per second: an old neutron star spun up again (“recycled”) by matter transferred from a companion. Period, spin-down, distance and orbit come from the ATNF Pulsar Catalogue; the beam geometry is illustrative.
| Type | Pulsar |
|---|---|
| Constellation | Centaurus |
| Period | 4.109 ms (243 Hz) |
| Period derivative | 2.7×10⁻²⁰ s/s |
| Characteristic age | 2.4 billion years |
| Magnetic field | 3.4×10⁸ G |
| Spin-down luminosity | 1.6×10³⁴ erg/s |
| Dispersion measure | 100.3 pc/cm³ |
| Distance | 5,430 pc (17.7 thousand ly) |
| Location | in the globular cluster OmegaCen(NGC5139) |
| Discovery | 2020 · misc |
| Source | ATNF Pulsar Catalogue |
| Right ascension (J2000) | 13h 26m 39.7s |
| Declination (J2000) | −47° 30′ 12″ |
In the sky
Visible from the whole Southern Hemisphere and north to latitude 42° N. South of latitude 42° S it never sets. 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 18 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 314 million years.