Pulsar
PSR J1824+1014
Millisecond pulsar · binary system
A millisecond pulsar spinning 246 times per second: an old neutron star spun up again (“recycled”) by matter transferred from a companion. It shares a 82.549 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 | Ophiuchus |
| Period | 4.066 ms (246 Hz) |
| Period derivative | 5.4×10⁻²¹ s/s |
| Characteristic age | 12.0 billion years |
| Magnetic field | 1.5×10⁸ G |
| Spin-down luminosity | 3.2×10³³ erg/s |
| Dispersion measure | 59.9 pc/cm³ |
| Distance | 2,904 pc (9.5 thousand ly) |
| Companion | helium white dwarf (estimated), ~0.31 M☉ |
| Orbital period | 82.549 days |
| Eccentricity | 0.000138 |
| Discovery | 2016 · FermiAssoc |
| Source | ATNF Pulsar Catalogue |
| Right ascension (J2000) | 18h 24m 14.9s |
| Declination (J2000) | +10° 14′ 44″ |
In the sky
Visible from the whole Northern Hemisphere and south to latitude 80° S. North of latitude 80° 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 9,472 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 168 million years.