Pulsar
PSR J1824-0621
Millisecond pulsar · binary system
A millisecond pulsar spinning 309 times per second: an old neutron star spun up again (“recycled”) by matter transferred from a companion. It shares a 101 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 | Scutum |
| Period | 3.233 ms (309 Hz) |
| Period derivative | 9.1×10⁻²¹ s/s |
| Characteristic age | 5.6 billion years |
| Magnetic field | 1.7×10⁸ G |
| Spin-down luminosity | 1.1×10³⁴ erg/s |
| Dispersion measure | 131.0 pc/cm³ |
| Distance | 3,534 pc (11.5 thousand ly) |
| Companion | helium white dwarf (estimated), ~0.34 M☉ |
| Orbital period | 101 days |
| Eccentricity | 0.000229 |
| Discovery | 2023 · fast_crafts |
| Source | ATNF Pulsar Catalogue |
| Right ascension (J2000) | 18h 24m 15.8s |
| Declination (J2000) | −6° 21′ 57″ |
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 12 thousand 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 204 million years.