Pulsar
PSR J1337-6423
Millisecond pulsar · binary system
A millisecond pulsar spinning 106 times per second: an old neutron star spun up again (“recycled”) by matter transferred from a companion. It shares a 4.785 days orbit with a CO white dwarf. Period, spin-down, distance and orbit come from the ATNF Pulsar Catalogue; the beam geometry is illustrative.
| Type | Pulsar |
|---|---|
| Constellation | Centaurus |
| Period | 9.423 ms (106 Hz) |
| Period derivative | 2.5×10⁻²⁰ s/s |
| Characteristic age | 6.1 billion years |
| Magnetic field | 4.9×10⁸ G |
| Spin-down luminosity | 1.2×10³³ erg/s |
| Dispersion measure | 259.9 pc/cm³ |
| Distance | 5,951 pc (19.4 thousand ly) |
| Companion | CO white dwarf (estimated), ~0.95 M☉ |
| Orbital period | 4.785 days |
| Eccentricity | 0.000020 |
| Discovery | 2012 · htru_pks |
| Source | ATNF Pulsar Catalogue |
| Right ascension (J2000) | 13h 37m 31.9s |
| Declination (J2000) | −64° 23′ 05″ |
In the sky
Visible from the whole Southern Hemisphere and north to latitude 26° N. South of latitude 26° 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 19 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 344 million years.