Pulsar
PSR J1641+3627E
Millisecond pulsar · in the globular cluster M13(NGC6205)
A millisecond pulsar spinning 402 times per second: an old neutron star spun up again (“recycled”) by matter transferred from a companion. It shares a 2.70 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 | Hercules |
| Period | 2.487 ms (402 Hz) |
| Period derivative | 1.7×10⁻²⁰ s/s |
| Characteristic age | 2.3 billion years |
| Magnetic field | 2.1×10⁸ G |
| Spin-down luminosity | 4.5×10³⁴ erg/s |
| Dispersion measure | 30.5 pc/cm³ |
| Distance | 7,420 pc (24.2 thousand ly) |
| Location | in the globular cluster M13(NGC6205) |
| Companion | very-low-mass companion (estimated), ~0.023 M☉ |
| Orbital period | 2.70 h |
| Eccentricity | 0.000130 |
| Discovery | 2007 · misc |
| Source | ATNF Pulsar Catalogue |
| Right ascension (J2000) | 16h 41m 42.0s |
| Declination (J2000) | +36° 27′ 35″ |
In the sky
Visible from the whole Northern Hemisphere and south to latitude 54° S. North of latitude 54° N 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 24 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 429 million years.