Pulsar
PSR J1327-0755
Millisecond pulsar · binary system
A millisecond pulsar spinning 373 times per second: an old neutron star spun up again (“recycled”) by matter transferred from a companion. It shares a 8.439 days orbit with a helium white dwarf. Period, spin-down, distance and orbit come from the ATNF Pulsar Catalogue; the beam geometry is illustrative.
| Type | Pulsar |
|---|---|
| Constellation | Virgo |
| Period | 2.678 ms (373 Hz) |
| Period derivative | 1.8×10⁻²¹ s/s |
| Characteristic age | 23.5 billion years |
| Magnetic field | 7.0×10⁷ G |
| Spin-down luminosity | 3.7×10³³ erg/s |
| Dispersion measure | 27.9 pc/cm³ |
| Distance | 25,000 pc (81.5 thousand ly) |
| Companion | helium white dwarf (estimated), ~0.26 M☉ |
| Orbital period | 8.439 days |
| Eccentricity | 0.000000 |
| Discovery | 2013 · gbt350, FermiAssoc, gbncc |
| Source | ATNF Pulsar Catalogue |
| Right ascension (J2000) | 13h 27m 57.6s |
| Declination (J2000) | −7° 55′ 30″ |
In the sky
Visible from the whole Southern Hemisphere and north to latitude 82° 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.