Pulsar
PSR J1753-2240
Radio pulsar · binary system
A neutron star spinning once every 0.095 seconds; the beams from its magnetic poles sweep across Earth on every turn. It shares a 13.638 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 | Sagittarius |
| Period | 95.138 ms (11 Hz) |
| Period derivative | 9.7×10⁻¹⁹ s/s |
| Characteristic age | 1.6 billion years |
| Magnetic field | 9.7×10⁹ G |
| Spin-down luminosity | 4.4×10³¹ erg/s |
| Dispersion measure | 158.6 pc/cm³ |
| Distance | 3,232 pc (10.5 thousand ly) |
| Companion | CO white dwarf (estimated), ~0.58 M☉ |
| Orbital period | 13.638 days |
| Eccentricity | 0.3036 |
| Discovery | 2009 · pksmb, htru_pks |
| Source | ATNF Pulsar Catalogue |
| Right ascension (J2000) | 17h 53m 39.8s |
| Declination (J2000) | −22° 40′ 42″ |
In the sky
Visible from the whole Southern Hemisphere and north to latitude 67° N. South of latitude 67° 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 11 thousand 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 187 million years.