Pulsar
PSR J1737-0314A
Millisecond pulsar · in the globular cluster M14(NGC6402)
A millisecond pulsar spinning 505 times per second: an old neutron star spun up again (“recycled”) by matter transferred from a companion. It shares a 5.47 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 | Ophiuchus |
| Period | 1.980 ms (505 Hz) |
| Period derivative | 9.6×10⁻²⁰ s/s |
| Characteristic age | 328 million years |
| Magnetic field | 4.4×10⁸ G |
| Spin-down luminosity | 4.9×10³⁵ erg/s |
| Dispersion measure | 82.1 pc/cm³ |
| Distance | 9,100 pc (29.7 thousand ly) |
| Location | in the globular cluster M14(NGC6402) |
| Companion | very-low-mass companion (estimated), ~0.018 M☉ |
| Orbital period | 5.47 h |
| Discovery | 2021 · fast_crafts |
| Source | ATNF Pulsar Catalogue |
| Right ascension (J2000) | 17h 37m 35.9s |
| Declination (J2000) | −3° 14′ 35″ |
In the sky
Visible from the whole Southern Hemisphere and north to latitude 87° N. 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 30 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 527 million years.