Pulsar
PSR J1853-0842A
Millisecond pulsar · in the globular cluster NGC6712
A millisecond pulsar spinning 465 times per second: an old neutron star spun up again (“recycled”) by matter transferred from a companion. It shares a 3.56 h orbit with a very-low-mass companion. Period, spin-down, distance and orbit come from the ATNF Pulsar Catalogue; the beam geometry is illustrative.
| Type | Pulsar |
|---|---|
| Constellation | Scutum |
| Period | 2.149 ms (465 Hz) |
| Dispersion measure | 155.1 pc/cm³ |
| Distance | 7,400 pc (24.1 thousand ly) |
| Location | in the globular cluster NGC6712 |
| Companion | very-low-mass companion (estimated), ~0.026 M☉ |
| Orbital period | 3.56 h |
| Discovery | 2021 · fast_crafts, fast_gcps |
| Source | ATNF Pulsar Catalogue |
| Right ascension (J2000) | 18h 53m 04.1s |
| Declination (J2000) | −8° 42′ 28″ |
In the sky
Visible from the whole Southern Hemisphere and north to latitude 81° N. 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 24 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 428 million years.