Pulsar
PSR J1727-2946
Millisecond pulsar · binary system
A millisecond pulsar spinning 37 times per second: an old neutron star spun up again (“recycled”) by matter transferred from a companion. It shares a 40.308 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 | Ophiuchus |
| Period | 27.083 ms (37 Hz) |
| Period derivative | 2.5×10⁻¹⁹ s/s |
| Characteristic age | 1.7 billion years |
| Magnetic field | 2.6×10⁹ G |
| Spin-down luminosity | 4.9×10³² erg/s |
| Dispersion measure | 60.7 pc/cm³ |
| Distance | 1,881 pc (6.1 thousand ly) |
| Companion | CO white dwarf (estimated), ~1.01 M☉ |
| Orbital period | 40.308 days |
| Eccentricity | 0.0456 |
| Discovery | 2004 · pksmb, htru_pks |
| Source | ATNF Pulsar Catalogue |
| Right ascension (J2000) | 17h 27m 15.1s |
| Declination (J2000) | −29° 46′ 37″ |
In the sky
Visible from the whole Southern Hemisphere and north to latitude 60° N. South of latitude 60° S it never sets. It stands highest at midnight in June, the best time to observe it.
Through a telescope from Earth
Light's journey
The light you see tonight set out 6,135 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 109 million years.