Pulsar
PSR J1525-5545
Millisecond pulsar · binary system
A millisecond pulsar spinning 88 times per second: an old neutron star spun up again (“recycled”) by matter transferred from a companion. It shares a 23.77 h orbit with a CO white dwarf. Period, spin-down, distance and orbit come from the ATNF Pulsar Catalogue; the beam geometry is illustrative.
| Type | Pulsar |
|---|---|
| Constellation | Circinus |
| Period | 11.360 ms (88 Hz) |
| Period derivative | 1.3×10⁻¹⁹ s/s |
| Characteristic age | 1.4 billion years |
| Magnetic field | 1.2×10⁹ G |
| Spin-down luminosity | 3.5×10³³ erg/s |
| Dispersion measure | 127.0 pc/cm³ |
| Distance | 3,139 pc (10.2 thousand ly) |
| Companion | CO white dwarf (estimated), ~0.99 M☉ |
| Orbital period | 23.77 h |
| Eccentricity | 0.000005 |
| Discovery | 2014 · htru_pks |
| Source | ATNF Pulsar Catalogue |
| Right ascension (J2000) | 15h 25m 28.1s |
| Declination (J2000) | −55° 45′ 50″ |
In the sky
Visible from the whole Southern Hemisphere and north to latitude 34° N. South of latitude 34° 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 10 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 182 million years.