Pulsar
PSR J1446-4701
Millisecond pulsar · binary system
A millisecond pulsar spinning 456 times per second: an old neutron star spun up again (“recycled”) by matter transferred from a companion. It shares a 6.66 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 | Lupus |
| Period | 2.195 ms (456 Hz) |
| Period derivative | 9.8×10⁻²¹ s/s |
| Characteristic age | 3.6 billion years |
| Magnetic field | 1.5×10⁸ G |
| Spin-down luminosity | 3.7×10³⁴ erg/s |
| Dispersion measure | 55.8 pc/cm³ |
| Distance | 1,429 pc (4.7 thousand ly) |
| Companion | very-low-mass companion (estimated), ~0.022 M☉ |
| Orbital period | 6.66 h |
| Eccentricity | 0.000010 |
| Discovery | 2012 · htru_pks, FermiBlind |
| Source | ATNF Pulsar Catalogue |
| Right ascension (J2000) | 14h 46m 35.7s |
| Declination (J2000) | −47° 01′ 27″ |
In the sky
Visible from the whole Southern Hemisphere and north to latitude 43° N. South of latitude 43° S it never sets. It stands highest at midnight in May, the best time to observe it.
Through a telescope from Earth
Light's journey
The light you see tonight set out 4,661 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 83 million years.