Pulsar
PSR J1750-3703A
Radio pulsar · in the globular cluster NGC6441
A neutron star spinning once every 0.112 seconds; the beams from its magnetic poles sweep across Earth on every turn. It shares a 17.334 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 | Scorpius |
| Period | 111.6 ms |
| Period derivative | 5.7×10⁻¹⁸ s/s |
| Characteristic age | 312 million years |
| Magnetic field | 2.5×10¹⁰ G |
| Spin-down luminosity | 1.6×10³² erg/s |
| Dispersion measure | 233.8 pc/cm³ |
| Distance | 12,730 pc (41.5 thousand ly) |
| Location | in the globular cluster NGC6441 |
| Companion | CO white dwarf (estimated), ~0.69 M☉ |
| Orbital period | 17.334 days |
| Eccentricity | 0.7124 |
| Discovery | 2001 · misc |
| Source | ATNF Pulsar Catalogue |
| Right ascension (J2000) | 17h 50m 13.8s |
| Declination (J2000) | −37° 03′ 11″ |
In the sky
Visible from the whole Southern Hemisphere and north to latitude 53° N. South of latitude 53° 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 42 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 737 million years.