Pulsar
PSR J1825-0319
Millisecond pulsar · binary system
A millisecond pulsar spinning 220 times per second: an old neutron star spun up again (“recycled”) by matter transferred from a companion. It shares a 52.631 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 | 4.554 ms (220 Hz) |
| Period derivative | 6.8×10⁻²¹ s/s |
| Characteristic age | 10.6 billion years |
| Magnetic field | 1.8×10⁸ G |
| Spin-down luminosity | 2.8×10³³ erg/s |
| Dispersion measure | 119.6 pc/cm³ |
| Distance | 3,861 pc (12.6 thousand ly) |
| Companion | helium white dwarf (estimated), ~0.21 M☉ |
| Orbital period | 52.631 days |
| Eccentricity | 0.000194 |
| Discovery | 2013 · htru_pks |
| Source | ATNF Pulsar Catalogue |
| Right ascension (J2000) | 18h 25m 55.9s |
| Declination (J2000) | −3° 19′ 58″ |
In the sky
Visible from the whole Southern Hemisphere and north to latitude 87° 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 13 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 223 million years.