Pulsar
PSR J1551-0658
Millisecond pulsar · binary system
A millisecond pulsar spinning 141 times per second: an old neutron star spun up again (“recycled”) by matter transferred from a companion. It shares a 5.207 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 | Libra |
| Period | 7.094 ms (141 Hz) |
| Period derivative | 2.1×10⁻²⁰ s/s |
| Characteristic age | 5.5 billion years |
| Magnetic field | 3.9×10⁸ G |
| Spin-down luminosity | 2.3×10³³ erg/s |
| Dispersion measure | 21.6 pc/cm³ |
| Distance | 1,322 pc (4.3 thousand ly) |
| Companion | helium white dwarf (estimated), ~0.23 M☉ |
| Orbital period | 5.207 days |
| Eccentricity | 0.000011 |
| Discovery | 2011 · FermiAssoc, gbt350 |
| Source | ATNF Pulsar Catalogue |
| Right ascension (J2000) | 15h 51m 09.5s |
| Declination (J2000) | −6° 58′ 08″ |
In the sky
Visible from the whole Southern Hemisphere and north to latitude 83° N. 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 4,312 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 76 million years.