Pulsar
PSR J1544+4937
Millisecond pulsar · binary system
A millisecond pulsar spinning 463 times per second: an old neutron star spun up again (“recycled”) by matter transferred from a companion. It shares a 2.90 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 | Boötes |
| Period | 2.159 ms (463 Hz) |
| Period derivative | 2.8×10⁻²¹ s/s |
| Characteristic age | 12.2 billion years |
| Magnetic field | 7.9×10⁷ G |
| Spin-down luminosity | 1.1×10³⁴ erg/s |
| Dispersion measure | 23.2 pc/cm³ |
| Distance | 2,981 pc (9.7 thousand ly) |
| Companion | very-low-mass companion (estimated), ~0.020 M☉ |
| Orbital period | 2.90 h |
| Eccentricity | 0.000095 |
| Discovery | 2013 · FermiAssoc, gbncc, fast_gpps |
| Source | ATNF Pulsar Catalogue |
| Right ascension (J2000) | 15h 44m 04.5s |
| Declination (J2000) | +49° 37′ 55″ |
In the sky
Visible from the whole Northern Hemisphere and south to latitude 40° S. North of latitude 40° N 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 9,723 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 172 million years.