Pulsar
PSR J1835-3259B
Millisecond pulsar · in the globular cluster NGC6652
A millisecond pulsar spinning 546 times per second: an old neutron star spun up again (“recycled”) by matter transferred from a companion. It shares a 1.198 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 | Sagittarius |
| Period | 1.830 ms (546 Hz) |
| Period derivative | 4.3×10⁻²⁰ s/s |
| Characteristic age | 668 million years |
| Magnetic field | 2.9×10⁸ G |
| Spin-down luminosity | 2.8×10³⁵ erg/s |
| Dispersion measure | 63.5 pc/cm³ |
| Distance | 9,460 pc (30.9 thousand ly) |
| Location | in the globular cluster NGC6652 |
| Companion | helium white dwarf (estimated), ~0.20 M☉ |
| Orbital period | 1.198 days |
| Eccentricity | 0.000035 |
| Discovery | 2022 · misc |
| Source | ATNF Pulsar Catalogue |
| Right ascension (J2000) | 18h 35m 45.5s |
| Declination (J2000) | −32° 59′ 25″ |
In the sky
Visible from the whole Southern Hemisphere and north to latitude 57° N. South of latitude 57° S 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 31 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 547 million years.