Pulsar
PSR J1850+0124
Millisecond pulsar · binary system
A millisecond pulsar spinning 281 times per second: an old neutron star spun up again (“recycled”) by matter transferred from a companion. It shares a 84.950 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 | Aquila |
| Period | 3.560 ms (281 Hz) |
| Period derivative | 1.1×10⁻²⁰ s/s |
| Characteristic age | 5.2 billion years |
| Magnetic field | 2.0×10⁸ G |
| Spin-down luminosity | 9.5×10³³ erg/s |
| Dispersion measure | 118.9 pc/cm³ |
| Distance | 3,385 pc (11.0 thousand ly) |
| Companion | helium white dwarf (estimated), ~0.29 M☉ |
| Orbital period | 84.950 days |
| Eccentricity | 0.000069 |
| Discovery | 2012 · palfa |
| Source | ATNF Pulsar Catalogue |
| Right ascension (J2000) | 18h 50m 01.0s |
| Declination (J2000) | +1° 24′ 35″ |
In the sky
Visible from the whole Northern Hemisphere and south to latitude 89° S. It stands highest at midnight in July, the best time to observe it.
Through a telescope from Earth
Light's journey
The light you see tonight set out 11 thousand years ago. At that time the first farming villages were being founded; there was no writing yet. At the speed of Voyager 1, the fastest craft leaving the Solar System (16.9 km per second), the trip would take 196 million years.