Pulsar
PSR J1602-1009
Millisecond pulsar · binary system
A millisecond pulsar spinning 321 times per second: an old neutron star spun up again (“recycled”) by matter transferred from a companion. It shares a 2.99 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 | Scorpius |
| Period | 3.116 ms (321 Hz) |
| Period derivative | 4.8×10⁻²¹ s/s |
| Characteristic age | 10.3 billion years |
| Magnetic field | 1.2×10⁸ G |
| Spin-down luminosity | 6.2×10³³ erg/s |
| Dispersion measure | 34.3 pc/cm³ |
| Distance | 2,383 pc (7.8 thousand ly) |
| Companion | very-low-mass companion (estimated), ~0.020 M☉ |
| Orbital period | 2.99 h |
| Eccentricity | 0.000204 |
| Discovery | 2024 · misc |
| Source | ATNF Pulsar Catalogue |
| Right ascension (J2000) | 16h 02m 13.3s |
| Declination (J2000) | −10° 09′ 20″ |
In the sky
Visible from the whole Southern Hemisphere and north to latitude 80° N. South of latitude 80° 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 7,772 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 138 million years.