Pulsar
PSR J1801-0857O
Millisecond pulsar · in the globular cluster NGC6517
A millisecond pulsar spinning 233 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 | 4.287 ms (233 Hz) |
| Period derivative | 1.3×10⁻¹⁹ s/s |
| Characteristic age | 517 million years |
| Magnetic field | 7.6×10⁸ G |
| Spin-down luminosity | 6.6×10³⁴ erg/s |
| Dispersion measure | 182.5 pc/cm³ |
| Distance | 6,671 pc (21.8 thousand ly) |
| Location | in the globular cluster NGC6517 |
| Discovery | 2024 · misc |
| Source | ATNF Pulsar Catalogue |
| Right ascension (J2000) | 18h 01m 50.8s |
| Declination (J2000) | −8° 57′ 33″ |
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 22 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 386 million years.