Pulsar
PSR J1811-0624
Millisecond pulsar · binary system
A millisecond pulsar spinning 241 times per second: an old neutron star spun up again (“recycled”) by matter transferred from a companion. It shares a 9.388 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 | Serpens |
| Period | 4.146 ms (241 Hz) |
| Period derivative | 4.8×10⁻²¹ s/s |
| Characteristic age | 13.6 billion years |
| Magnetic field | 1.4×10⁸ G |
| Spin-down luminosity | 2.7×10³³ erg/s |
| Dispersion measure | 158.8 pc/cm³ |
| Distance | 5,801 pc (18.9 thousand ly) |
| Companion | helium white dwarf (estimated), ~0.24 M☉ |
| Orbital period | 9.388 days |
| Eccentricity | 0.000026 |
| Discovery | 2023 · fast_crafts |
| Source | ATNF Pulsar Catalogue |
| Right ascension (J2000) | 18h 11m 18.1s |
| Declination (J2000) | −6° 24′ 37″ |
In the sky
Visible from the whole Southern Hemisphere and north to latitude 84° 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 19 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 336 million years.