Pulsar
PSR J1755-3716
Millisecond pulsar · binary system
A millisecond pulsar spinning 78 times per second: an old neutron star spun up again (“recycled”) by matter transferred from a companion. It shares a 11.516 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 | Scorpius |
| Period | 12.786 ms (78 Hz) |
| Period derivative | 3.1×10⁻²⁰ s/s |
| Characteristic age | 6.5 billion years |
| Magnetic field | 6.4×10⁸ G |
| Spin-down luminosity | 5.9×10³² erg/s |
| Dispersion measure | 167.6 pc/cm³ |
| Distance | 8,178 pc (26.7 thousand ly) |
| Companion | helium white dwarf (estimated), ~0.35 M☉ |
| Orbital period | 11.516 days |
| Eccentricity | 0.000014 |
| Discovery | 2014 · htru_pks |
| Source | ATNF Pulsar Catalogue |
| Right ascension (J2000) | 17h 55m 35.4s |
| Declination (J2000) | −37° 16′ 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 27 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 473 million years.