Pulsar
PSR J1828+0625
Millisecond pulsar · binary system
A millisecond pulsar spinning 276 times per second: an old neutron star spun up again (“recycled”) by matter transferred from a companion. It shares a 77.925 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 | 3.628 ms (276 Hz) |
| Period derivative | 4.7×10⁻²¹ s/s |
| Characteristic age | 12.3 billion years |
| Magnetic field | 1.3×10⁸ G |
| Spin-down luminosity | 3.9×10³³ erg/s |
| Dispersion measure | 22.4 pc/cm³ |
| Distance | 1,000 pc (3.3 thousand ly) |
| Companion | helium white dwarf (estimated), ~0.32 M☉ |
| Orbital period | 77.925 days |
| Eccentricity | 0.000098 |
| Discovery | 2013 · FermiAssoc, fast_gpps |
| Source | ATNF Pulsar Catalogue |
| Right ascension (J2000) | 18h 28m 28.9s |
| Declination (J2000) | +6° 25′ 10″ |
In the sky
Visible from the whole Northern Hemisphere and south to latitude 84° S. 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 around 1237 BC. At the speed of Voyager 1, the fastest craft leaving the Solar System (16.9 km per second), the trip would take 58 million years.