Pulsar
PSR J1823+1208
Millisecond pulsar · binary system
A millisecond pulsar spinning 192 times per second: an old neutron star spun up again (“recycled”) by matter transferred from a companion. It shares a 7.799 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 | Hercules |
| Period | 5.206 ms (192 Hz) |
| Period derivative | 8.9×10⁻²¹ s/s |
| Characteristic age | 9.3 billion years |
| Magnetic field | 2.2×10⁸ G |
| Spin-down luminosity | 2.5×10³³ erg/s |
| Dispersion measure | 40.7 pc/cm³ |
| Distance | 1,698 pc (5.5 thousand ly) |
| Companion | helium white dwarf (estimated), ~0.25 M☉ |
| Orbital period | 7.799 days |
| Eccentricity | 0.000009 |
| Discovery | 2026 · meerkat_trapum |
| Source | ATNF Pulsar Catalogue |
| Right ascension (J2000) | 18h 23m 18.3s |
| Declination (J2000) | +12° 08′ 39″ |
In the sky
Visible from the whole Northern Hemisphere and south to latitude 78° S. North of latitude 78° N it never sets. 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 5,538 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 98 million years.