Pulsar
PSR J1600-3053
Millisecond pulsar · binary system
A millisecond pulsar spinning 278 times per second: an old neutron star spun up again (“recycled”) by matter transferred from a companion. It shares a 14.349 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 | 3.598 ms (278 Hz) |
| Period derivative | 9.5×10⁻²¹ s/s |
| Characteristic age | 6.0 billion years |
| Magnetic field | 1.9×10⁸ G |
| Spin-down luminosity | 8.1×10³³ erg/s |
| Dispersion measure | 52.3 pc/cm³ |
| Distance | 1,389 pc (4.5 thousand ly) |
| Companion | helium white dwarf (estimated), ~0.24 M☉ |
| Orbital period | 14.349 days |
| Eccentricity | 0.000174 |
| Discovery | 2007 · pkssw, FermiBlind, gbncc |
| Source | ATNF Pulsar Catalogue |
| Right ascension (J2000) | 16h 00m 51.9s |
| Declination (J2000) | −30° 53′ 50″ |
In the sky
Visible from the whole Southern Hemisphere and north to latitude 59° N. South of latitude 59° 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 4,530 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 80 million years.