Pulsar
PSR J1641+3627G
Millisecond pulsar · in the globular cluster M13
A millisecond pulsar spinning 231 times per second: an old neutron star spun up again (“recycled”) by matter transferred from a companion. It shares a 2.89 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 | 4.324 ms (231 Hz) |
| Dispersion measure | 30.8 pc/cm³ |
| Distance | 25,000 pc (81.5 thousand ly) |
| Location | in the globular cluster M13 |
| Companion | very-low-mass companion (estimated), ~0.010 M☉ |
| Orbital period | 2.89 h |
| Discovery | 2025 · fast_gcps |
| Source | ATNF Pulsar Catalogue |
| Right ascension (J2000) | 16h 41m 43.0s |
| Declination (J2000) | +36° 29′ 22″ |
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 82 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 1.4 billion years.