Pulsar
PSR J1932+2121_P
Millisecond pulsar · binary system
A millisecond pulsar spinning 70 times per second: an old neutron star spun up again (“recycled”) by matter transferred from a companion. It shares a 1.94 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 | Vulpecula |
| Period | 14.245 ms (70 Hz) |
| Period derivative | 3.5×10⁻¹⁹ s/s |
| Characteristic age | 640 million years |
| Magnetic field | 2.3×10⁹ G |
| Spin-down luminosity | 4.8×10³³ erg/s |
| Dispersion measure | 192.1 pc/cm³ |
| Distance | 5,106 pc (16.7 thousand ly) |
| Companion | helium white dwarf (estimated), ~0.13 M☉ |
| Orbital period | 1.94 h |
| Eccentricity | 0.000028 |
| Discovery | 2025 · fast_gpps |
| Source | ATNF Pulsar Catalogue |
| Right ascension (J2000) | 19h 32m 21.2s |
| Declination (J2000) | +21° 21′ 07″ |
In the sky
Visible from the whole Northern Hemisphere and south to latitude 69° S. North of latitude 69° 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 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 295 million years.