Pulsar
PSR J1903+0839_P
Millisecond pulsar · binary system
A millisecond pulsar spinning 216 times per second: an old neutron star spun up again (“recycled”) by matter transferred from a companion. It shares a 7.50 h 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 | 4.621 ms (216 Hz) |
| Period derivative | 4.7×10⁻²¹ s/s |
| Characteristic age | 15.7 billion years |
| Magnetic field | 1.5×10⁸ G |
| Spin-down luminosity | 1.9×10³³ erg/s |
| Dispersion measure | 166.5 pc/cm³ |
| Distance | 5,317 pc (17.3 thousand ly) |
| Companion | helium white dwarf (estimated), ~0.14 M☉ |
| Orbital period | 7.50 h |
| Eccentricity | 0.000006 |
| Discovery | 2021 · fast_gpps |
| Source | ATNF Pulsar Catalogue |
| Right ascension (J2000) | 19h 03m 51.8s |
| Declination (J2000) | +8° 39′ 17″ |
In the sky
Visible from the whole Northern Hemisphere and south to latitude 81° 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 308 million years.