Pulsar
PSR J1546-3747A
Millisecond pulsar · in the globular cluster NGC5986
A millisecond pulsar spinning 384 times per second: an old neutron star spun up again (“recycled”) by matter transferred from a companion. It shares a 1.347 days orbit with a helium white dwarf. Period, spin-down, distance and orbit come from the ATNF Pulsar Catalogue; the beam geometry is illustrative.
| Type | Pulsar |
|---|---|
| Constellation | Lupus |
| Period | 2.606 ms (384 Hz) |
| Dispersion measure | 92.2 pc/cm³ |
| Distance | 10,540 pc (34.4 thousand ly) |
| Location | in the globular cluster NGC5986 |
| Companion | helium white dwarf (estimated), ~0.18 M☉ |
| Orbital period | 1.347 days |
| Discovery | 2011 · misc |
| Source | ATNF Pulsar Catalogue |
| Right ascension (J2000) | 15h 46m 03.4s |
| Declination (J2000) | −37° 47′ 10″ |
In the sky
Visible from the whole Southern Hemisphere and north to latitude 52° N. South of latitude 52° 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 34 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 610 million years.