Pulsar
PSR J1431-5740
Millisecond pulsar · binary system
A millisecond pulsar spinning 243 times per second: an old neutron star spun up again (“recycled”) by matter transferred from a companion. It shares a 2.727 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 | Centaurus |
| Period | 4.111 ms (243 Hz) |
| Period derivative | 6.4×10⁻²¹ s/s |
| Characteristic age | 10.1 billion years |
| Magnetic field | 1.6×10⁸ G |
| Spin-down luminosity | 3.6×10³³ erg/s |
| Dispersion measure | 131.4 pc/cm³ |
| Distance | 3,552 pc (11.6 thousand ly) |
| Companion | helium white dwarf (estimated), ~0.18 M☉ |
| Orbital period | 2.727 days |
| Eccentricity | 0.000004 |
| Discovery | 2013 · htru_pks |
| Source | ATNF Pulsar Catalogue |
| Right ascension (J2000) | 14h 31m 03.5s |
| Declination (J2000) | −57° 40′ 12″ |
In the sky
Visible from the whole Southern Hemisphere and north to latitude 32° N. South of latitude 32° 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 12 thousand years ago. At that time the first farming villages were being founded; there was no writing yet. At the speed of Voyager 1, the fastest craft leaving the Solar System (16.9 km per second), the trip would take 206 million years.