Pulsar
PSR J1342+2822A
Millisecond pulsar · in the globular cluster M3(NGC5272)
A millisecond pulsar spinning 393 times per second: an old neutron star spun up again (“recycled”) by matter transferred from a companion. It shares a 3.26 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 | Canes Venatici |
| Period | 2.545 ms (393 Hz) |
| Dispersion measure | 26.4 pc/cm³ |
| Distance | 10,180 pc (33.2 thousand ly) |
| Location | in the globular cluster M3(NGC5272) |
| Companion | very-low-mass companion (estimated), ~0.014 M☉ |
| Orbital period | 3.26 h |
| Eccentricity | 0.000067 |
| Discovery | 2007 · misc |
| Source | ATNF Pulsar Catalogue |
| Right ascension (J2000) | 13h 42m 13.8s |
| Declination (J2000) | +28° 23′ 02″ |
In the sky
Visible from the whole Northern Hemisphere and south to latitude 62° S. North of latitude 62° N 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 33 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 589 million years.