Pulsar
PSR J1618-4624
Millisecond pulsar · binary system
A millisecond pulsar spinning 169 times per second: an old neutron star spun up again (“recycled”) by matter transferred from a companion. It shares a 1.780 days orbit with a CO white dwarf. Period, spin-down, distance and orbit come from the ATNF Pulsar Catalogue; the beam geometry is illustrative.
| Type | Pulsar |
|---|---|
| Constellation | Norma |
| Period | 5.931 ms (169 Hz) |
| Period derivative | 3.1×10⁻²¹ s/s |
| Characteristic age | 30.3 billion years |
| Magnetic field | 1.4×10⁸ G |
| Spin-down luminosity | 5.9×10³² erg/s |
| Dispersion measure | 125.4 pc/cm³ |
| Distance | 3,045 pc (9.9 thousand ly) |
| Companion | CO white dwarf (estimated), ~0.69 M☉ |
| Orbital period | 1.780 days |
| Discovery | 2020 · htru_pks, FermiAssoc |
| Source | ATNF Pulsar Catalogue |
| Right ascension (J2000) | 16h 18m 52.8s |
| Declination (J2000) | −46° 24′ 35″ |
In the sky
Visible from the whole Southern Hemisphere and north to latitude 44° N. South of latitude 44° 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 9,932 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 176 million years.