Pulsar
PSR J1805+0615
Millisecond pulsar · binary system
A millisecond pulsar spinning 470 times per second: an old neutron star spun up again (“recycled”) by matter transferred from a companion. It shares a 8.08 h orbit with a very-low-mass companion. Period, spin-down, distance and orbit come from the ATNF Pulsar Catalogue; the beam geometry is illustrative.
| Type | Pulsar |
|---|---|
| Constellation | Ophiuchus |
| Period | 2.129 ms (470 Hz) |
| Period derivative | 2.3×10⁻²⁰ s/s |
| Characteristic age | 1.5 billion years |
| Magnetic field | 2.2×10⁸ G |
| Spin-down luminosity | 9.3×10³⁴ erg/s |
| Dispersion measure | 64.9 pc/cm³ |
| Distance | 3,885 pc (12.7 thousand ly) |
| Companion | very-low-mass companion (estimated), ~0.027 M☉ |
| Orbital period | 8.08 h |
| Eccentricity | 0.000150 |
| Discovery | 2016 · FermiAssoc |
| Source | ATNF Pulsar Catalogue |
| Right ascension (J2000) | 18h 05m 42.4s |
| Declination (J2000) | +6° 15′ 19″ |
In the sky
Visible from the whole Northern Hemisphere and south to latitude 84° S. 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 13 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 225 million years.