Pulsar
PSR J1844-0128
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 10.600 days orbit with a CO white dwarf. Period, spin-down, distance and orbit come from the ATNF Pulsar Catalogue; the beam geometry is illustrative.
| Type | Pulsar |
|---|---|
| Constellation | Aquila |
| Period | 29.144 ms (34 Hz) |
| Period derivative | 3.1×10⁻²⁰ s/s |
| Characteristic age | 15.1 billion years |
| Magnetic field | 9.6×10⁸ G |
| Spin-down luminosity | 4.9×10³¹ erg/s |
| Dispersion measure | 368.2 pc/cm³ |
| Distance | 5,791 pc (18.9 thousand ly) |
| Companion | CO white dwarf (estimated), ~0.88 M☉ |
| Orbital period | 10.600 days |
| Eccentricity | 0.2349 |
| Discovery | 2025 · fast_gpps |
| Source | ATNF Pulsar Catalogue |
| Right ascension (J2000) | 18h 44m 21.0s |
| Declination (J2000) | −1° 28′ 26″ |
In the sky
Visible from the whole Southern Hemisphere and north to latitude 89° 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 19 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 335 million years.