Pulsar
PSR J1906+0746
Radio pulsar · binary system
A neutron star spinning once every 0.144 seconds; the beams from its magnetic poles sweep across Earth on every turn. It shares a 3.98 h orbit with a CO white dwarf. Period, spin-down, distance and orbit come from the ATNF Pulsar Catalogue; the beam geometry is illustrative.
| Type | Pulsar |
|---|---|
| Constellation | Aquila |
| Period | 144.1 ms |
| Period derivative | 2.0×10⁻¹⁴ s/s |
| Characteristic age | 113 thousand years |
| Magnetic field | 1.7×10¹² G |
| Spin-down luminosity | 2.7×10³⁵ erg/s |
| Dispersion measure | 217.8 pc/cm³ |
| Distance | 7,400 pc (24.1 thousand ly) |
| Companion | CO white dwarf (estimated), ~0.98 M☉ |
| Orbital period | 3.98 h |
| Eccentricity | 0.0853 |
| Discovery | 2006 · palfa, fast_gpps |
| Source | ATNF Pulsar Catalogue |
| Right ascension (J2000) | 19h 06m 48.7s |
| Declination (J2000) | +7° 46′ 27″ |
In the sky
Visible from the whole Northern Hemisphere and south to latitude 82° 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 24 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 428 million years.