Pulsar
PSR J1853+1303
Millisecond pulsar · binary system
A millisecond pulsar spinning 244 times per second: an old neutron star spun up again (“recycled”) by matter transferred from a companion. It shares a 116 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 | Hercules |
| Period | 4.092 ms (244 Hz) |
| Period derivative | 8.7×10⁻²¹ s/s |
| Characteristic age | 7.4 billion years |
| Magnetic field | 1.9×10⁸ G |
| Spin-down luminosity | 5.0×10³³ erg/s |
| Dispersion measure | 30.6 pc/cm³ |
| Distance | 1,887 pc (6.2 thousand ly) |
| Companion | helium white dwarf (estimated), ~0.28 M☉ |
| Orbital period | 116 days |
| Eccentricity | 0.000024 |
| Discovery | 2004 · pksmb, fast_gpps |
| Source | ATNF Pulsar Catalogue |
| Right ascension (J2000) | 18h 53m 57.3s |
| Declination (J2000) | +13° 03′ 44″ |
In the sky
Visible from the whole Northern Hemisphere and south to latitude 77° S. North of latitude 77° N it never sets. 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 6,155 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 109 million years.