Pulsar
PSR J1906-1754
Millisecond pulsar · binary system
A millisecond pulsar spinning 348 times per second: an old neutron star spun up again (“recycled”) by matter transferred from a companion. It shares a 6.491 days 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 | Sagittarius |
| Period | 2.876 ms (348 Hz) |
| Period derivative | 3.9×10⁻²¹ s/s |
| Characteristic age | 11.6 billion years |
| Magnetic field | 1.1×10⁸ G |
| Spin-down luminosity | 6.5×10³³ erg/s |
| Dispersion measure | 98.1 pc/cm³ |
| Distance | 6,780 pc (22.1 thousand ly) |
| Companion | very-low-mass companion (estimated), ~0.058 M☉ |
| Orbital period | 6.491 days |
| Discovery | 2023 · meerkat_trapum, FermiBlind |
| Source | ATNF Pulsar Catalogue |
| Right ascension (J2000) | 19h 06m 14.8s |
| Declination (J2000) | −17° 54′ 34″ |
In the sky
Visible from the whole Southern Hemisphere and north to latitude 72° N. South of latitude 72° S 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 22 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 392 million years.