Pulsar
PSR J1513-2550
Millisecond pulsar · binary system
A millisecond pulsar spinning 472 times per second: an old neutron star spun up again (“recycled”) by matter transferred from a companion. It shares a 4.29 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 | Libra |
| Period | 2.119 ms (472 Hz) |
| Period derivative | 2.2×10⁻²⁰ s/s |
| Characteristic age | 1.6 billion years |
| Magnetic field | 2.2×10⁸ G |
| Spin-down luminosity | 9.0×10³⁴ erg/s |
| Dispersion measure | 46.9 pc/cm³ |
| Distance | 1,950 pc (6.4 thousand ly) |
| Companion | very-low-mass companion (estimated), ~0.019 M☉ |
| Orbital period | 4.29 h |
| Discovery | 2016 · FermiAssoc |
| Source | ATNF Pulsar Catalogue |
| Right ascension (J2000) | 15h 13m 23.3s |
| Declination (J2000) | −25° 50′ 31″ |
In the sky
Visible from the whole Southern Hemisphere and north to latitude 64° N. South of latitude 64° 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 6,360 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 113 million years.