Pulsar
PSR J1903+0327
Millisecond pulsar · binary system
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 95.174 days orbit with a neutron star. Period, spin-down, distance and orbit come from the ATNF Pulsar Catalogue; the beam geometry is illustrative.
| Type | Pulsar |
|---|---|
| Constellation | Aquila |
| Period | 2.150 ms (465 Hz) |
| Period derivative | 1.9×10⁻²⁰ s/s |
| Characteristic age | 1.8 billion years |
| Magnetic field | 2.0×10⁸ G |
| Spin-down luminosity | 7.5×10³⁴ erg/s |
| Dispersion measure | 297.5 pc/cm³ |
| Distance | 7,000 pc (22.8 thousand ly) |
| Companion | neutron star (estimated), ~1.08 M☉ |
| Orbital period | 95.174 days |
| Eccentricity | 0.4367 |
| Discovery | 2008 · palfa, fast_gpps |
| Source | ATNF Pulsar Catalogue |
| Right ascension (J2000) | 19h 03m 05.8s |
| Declination (J2000) | +3° 27′ 19″ |
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 23 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 405 million years.