Pulsar
PSR J1841+0130
Millisecond pulsar · binary system
A millisecond pulsar spinning 34 times per second: an old neutron star spun up again (“recycled”) by matter transferred from a companion. It shares a 10.472 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 | 29.773 ms (34 Hz) |
| Period derivative | 8.2×10⁻¹⁸ s/s |
| Characteristic age | 58 million years |
| Magnetic field | 1.6×10¹⁰ G |
| Spin-down luminosity | 1.2×10³⁴ erg/s |
| Dispersion measure | 125.9 pc/cm³ |
| Distance | 4,230 pc (13.8 thousand ly) |
| Companion | helium white dwarf (estimated), ~0.11 M☉ |
| Orbital period | 10.472 days |
| Eccentricity | 0.000080 |
| Discovery | 2004 · pksmb |
| Source | ATNF Pulsar Catalogue |
| Right ascension (J2000) | 18h 41m 17.8s |
| Declination (J2000) | +1° 30′ 17″ |
In the sky
Visible from the whole Northern Hemisphere and south to latitude 88° 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 14 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 245 million years.