Pulsar
PSR J1757-6032
Millisecond pulsar · binary system
A millisecond pulsar spinning 343 times per second: an old neutron star spun up again (“recycled”) by matter transferred from a companion. It shares a 6.280 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 | Pavo |
| Period | 2.912 ms (343 Hz) |
| Period derivative | 3.0×10⁻²¹ s/s |
| Characteristic age | 15.4 billion years |
| Magnetic field | 9.5×10⁷ G |
| Spin-down luminosity | 4.8×10³³ erg/s |
| Dispersion measure | 62.9 pc/cm³ |
| Distance | 3,512 pc (11.5 thousand ly) |
| Companion | CO white dwarf (estimated), ~0.50 M☉ |
| Orbital period | 6.280 days |
| Eccentricity | 0.000002 |
| Discovery | 2023 · meerkat_trapum, FermiAssoc |
| Source | ATNF Pulsar Catalogue |
| Right ascension (J2000) | 17h 57m 45.5s |
| Declination (J2000) | −60° 32′ 12″ |
In the sky
Visible from the whole Southern Hemisphere and north to latitude 29° N. South of latitude 29° 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 203 million years.