Pulsar
PSR J1913+0618
Millisecond pulsar · binary system
A millisecond pulsar spinning 199 times per second: an old neutron star spun up again (“recycled”) by matter transferred from a companion. It shares a 67.744 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 | 5.027 ms (199 Hz) |
| Period derivative | 9.6×10⁻²¹ s/s |
| Characteristic age | 8.3 billion years |
| Magnetic field | 2.2×10⁸ G |
| Spin-down luminosity | 3.0×10³³ erg/s |
| Dispersion measure | 156.0 pc/cm³ |
| Distance | 5,862 pc (19.1 thousand ly) |
| Companion | helium white dwarf (estimated), ~0.33 M☉ |
| Orbital period | 67.744 days |
| Eccentricity | 0.000705 |
| Discovery | 2015 · palfa |
| Source | ATNF Pulsar Catalogue |
| Right ascension (J2000) | 19h 13m 17.9s |
| Declination (J2000) | +6° 18′ 08″ |
In the sky
Visible from the whole Northern Hemisphere and south to latitude 84° 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 19 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 339 million years.