Pulsar
PSR J1813-0402
Millisecond pulsar · binary system
A millisecond pulsar spinning 244 times per second: an old neutron star spun up again (“recycled”) by matter transferred from a companion. It shares a 10.560 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 | 4.107 ms (244 Hz) |
| Period derivative | 6.9×10⁻²¹ s/s |
| Characteristic age | 9.4 billion years |
| Magnetic field | 1.7×10⁸ G |
| Spin-down luminosity | 4.0×10³³ erg/s |
| Dispersion measure | 71.3 pc/cm³ |
| Distance | 2,229 pc (7.3 thousand ly) |
| Companion | helium white dwarf (estimated), ~0.33 M☉ |
| Orbital period | 10.560 days |
| Eccentricity | 0.000004 |
| Discovery | 2023 · fast_crafts |
| Source | ATNF Pulsar Catalogue |
| Right ascension (J2000) | 18h 13m 34.9s |
| Declination (J2000) | −4° 02′ 48″ |
In the sky
Visible from the whole Southern Hemisphere and north to latitude 86° 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 7,270 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 129 million years.