Pulsar
PSR J1801-0857D
Millisecond pulsar · in the globular cluster NGC6517
A millisecond pulsar spinning 237 times per second: an old neutron star spun up again (“recycled”) by matter transferred from a companion. Period, spin-down, distance and orbit come from the ATNF Pulsar Catalogue; the beam geometry is illustrative.
| Type | Pulsar |
|---|---|
| Constellation | Ophiuchus |
| Period | 4.227 ms (237 Hz) |
| Period derivative | 7.5×10⁻²¹ s/s |
| Characteristic age | 8.9 billion years |
| Magnetic field | 1.8×10⁸ G |
| Spin-down luminosity | 3.9×10³³ erg/s |
| Dispersion measure | 174.5 pc/cm³ |
| Distance | 9,200 pc (30.0 thousand ly) |
| Location | in the globular cluster NGC6517 |
| Discovery | 2011 · misc |
| Source | ATNF Pulsar Catalogue |
| Right ascension (J2000) | 18h 01m 55.4s |
| Declination (J2000) | −8° 57′ 24″ |
In the sky
Visible from the whole Southern Hemisphere and north to latitude 81° 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 532 million years.