Pulsar
PSR J1623-6936
Millisecond pulsar · binary system
A millisecond pulsar spinning 415 times per second: an old neutron star spun up again (“recycled”) by matter transferred from a companion. It shares a 11.014 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 | 2.410 ms (415 Hz) |
| Period derivative | 9.1×10⁻²¹ s/s |
| Characteristic age | 4.2 billion years |
| Magnetic field | 1.5×10⁸ G |
| Spin-down luminosity | 2.6×10³⁴ erg/s |
| Dispersion measure | 46.4 pc/cm³ |
| Distance | 1,291 pc (4.2 thousand ly) |
| Companion | helium white dwarf (estimated), ~0.22 M☉ |
| Orbital period | 11.014 days |
| Eccentricity | 0.000051 |
| Discovery | 2023 · meerkat_trapum, FermiAssoc |
| Source | ATNF Pulsar Catalogue |
| Right ascension (J2000) | 16h 23m 51.4s |
| Declination (J2000) | −69° 36′ 49″ |
In the sky
Visible from the whole Southern Hemisphere and north to latitude 20° N. South of latitude 20° 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 4,211 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 75 million years.