Pulsar
PSR J1732-5049
Millisecond pulsar · binary system
A millisecond pulsar spinning 188 times per second: an old neutron star spun up again (“recycled”) by matter transferred from a companion. It shares a 5.263 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 | Ara |
| Period | 5.313 ms (188 Hz) |
| Period derivative | 1.4×10⁻²⁰ s/s |
| Characteristic age | 5.9 billion years |
| Magnetic field | 2.8×10⁸ G |
| Spin-down luminosity | 3.7×10³³ erg/s |
| Dispersion measure | 56.8 pc/cm³ |
| Distance | 1,874 pc (6.1 thousand ly) |
| Companion | helium white dwarf (estimated), ~0.21 M☉ |
| Orbital period | 5.263 days |
| Eccentricity | 0.000008 |
| Discovery | 2001 · pkssw, FermiBlind, htru_pks |
| Source | ATNF Pulsar Catalogue |
| Right ascension (J2000) | 17h 32m 47.8s |
| Declination (J2000) | −50° 49′ 00″ |
In the sky
Visible from the whole Southern Hemisphere and north to latitude 39° N. South of latitude 39° 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 6,112 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 108 million years.