Pulsar
PSR J1622-6617
Millisecond pulsar · binary system
A millisecond pulsar spinning 42 times per second: an old neutron star spun up again (“recycled”) by matter transferred from a companion. It shares a 1.641 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 | Triangulum Australe |
| Period | 23.623 ms (42 Hz) |
| Period derivative | 5.9×10⁻²⁰ s/s |
| Characteristic age | 6.4 billion years |
| Magnetic field | 1.2×10⁹ G |
| Spin-down luminosity | 1.8×10³² erg/s |
| Dispersion measure | 88.0 pc/cm³ |
| Distance | 4,045 pc (13.2 thousand ly) |
| Companion | helium white dwarf (estimated), ~0.11 M☉ |
| Orbital period | 1.641 days |
| Eccentricity | 0.000015 |
| Discovery | 2012 · htru_pks |
| Source | ATNF Pulsar Catalogue |
| Right ascension (J2000) | 16h 22m 03.7s |
| Declination (J2000) | −66° 17′ 17″ |
In the sky
Visible from the whole Southern Hemisphere and north to latitude 24° N. South of latitude 24° 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 13 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 234 million years.