Pulsar
PSR J1901+0300
Millisecond pulsar · binary system
A millisecond pulsar spinning 128 times per second: an old neutron star spun up again (“recycled”) by matter transferred from a companion. It shares a 2.399 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 | 7.797 ms (128 Hz) |
| Period derivative | 4.6×10⁻²⁰ s/s |
| Characteristic age | 2.7 billion years |
| Magnetic field | 6.0×10⁸ G |
| Spin-down luminosity | 3.8×10³³ erg/s |
| Dispersion measure | 253.9 pc/cm³ |
| Distance | 5,304 pc (17.3 thousand ly) |
| Companion | helium white dwarf (estimated), ~0.16 M☉ |
| Orbital period | 2.399 days |
| Eccentricity | 0.000003 |
| Discovery | 2015 · palfa |
| Source | ATNF Pulsar Catalogue |
| Right ascension (J2000) | 19h 01m 59.6s |
| Declination (J2000) | +3° 00′ 23″ |
In the sky
Visible from the whole Northern Hemisphere and south to latitude 87° 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 17 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 307 million years.