Pulsar
PSR J1923+2022
Radio pulsar · binary system
A neutron star spinning once every 0.038 seconds; the beams from its magnetic poles sweep across Earth on every turn. It shares a 777 days 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 | Vulpecula |
| Period | 37.993 ms (26 Hz) |
| Period derivative | 1.8×10⁻¹⁹ s/s |
| Characteristic age | 3.3 billion years |
| Magnetic field | 2.7×10⁹ G |
| Spin-down luminosity | 1.3×10³² erg/s |
| Dispersion measure | 175.3 pc/cm³ |
| Distance | 4,638 pc (15.1 thousand ly) |
| Companion | CO white dwarf (estimated), ~0.52 M☉ |
| Orbital period | 777 days |
| Eccentricity | 0.000677 |
| Discovery | 2026 · misc |
| Source | ATNF Pulsar Catalogue |
| Right ascension (J2000) | 19h 23m 47.5s |
| Declination (J2000) | +20° 22′ 51″ |
In the sky
Visible from the whole Northern Hemisphere and south to latitude 70° S. North of latitude 70° N 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 15 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 268 million years.