Pulsar
PSR J1502-6752
Millisecond pulsar · binary system
A millisecond pulsar spinning 37 times per second: an old neutron star spun up again (“recycled”) by matter transferred from a companion. It shares a 2.484 days 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 | Circinus |
| Period | 26.744 ms (37 Hz) |
| Period derivative | 3.1×10⁻¹⁹ s/s |
| Characteristic age | 1.4 billion years |
| Magnetic field | 2.9×10⁹ G |
| Spin-down luminosity | 6.5×10³² erg/s |
| Dispersion measure | 152.2 pc/cm³ |
| Distance | 7,866 pc (25.7 thousand ly) |
| Companion | very-low-mass companion (estimated), ~0.025 M☉ |
| Orbital period | 2.484 days |
| Eccentricity | 0.000031 |
| Discovery | 2012 · htru_pks |
| Source | ATNF Pulsar Catalogue |
| Right ascension (J2000) | 15h 02m 18.6s |
| Declination (J2000) | −67° 52′ 17″ |
In the sky
Visible from the whole Southern Hemisphere and north to latitude 22° N. South of latitude 22° 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 26 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 455 million years.