Pulsar
PSR J1728-4608
Millisecond pulsar · binary system
A millisecond pulsar spinning 349 times per second: an old neutron star spun up again (“recycled”) by matter transferred from a companion. It shares a 5.05 h 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 | Ara |
| Period | 2.864 ms (349 Hz) |
| Period derivative | 7.8×10⁻²¹ s/s |
| Characteristic age | 5.8 billion years |
| Magnetic field | 1.5×10⁸ G |
| Spin-down luminosity | 1.3×10³⁴ erg/s |
| Dispersion measure | 65.5 pc/cm³ |
| Distance | 2,179 pc (7.1 thousand ly) |
| Companion | helium white dwarf (estimated), ~0.14 M☉ |
| Orbital period | 5.05 h |
| Eccentricity | 0.000160 |
| Discovery | 2026 · misc |
| Source | ATNF Pulsar Catalogue |
| Right ascension (J2000) | 17h 28m 12.3s |
| Declination (J2000) | −46° 08′ 01″ |
In the sky
Visible from the whole Southern Hemisphere and north to latitude 44° N. South of latitude 44° 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 7,107 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 126 million years.