Pulsar
PSR J1952+2630
Millisecond pulsar · binary system
A millisecond pulsar spinning 48 times per second: an old neutron star spun up again (“recycled”) by matter transferred from a companion. It shares a 9.41 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 | Vulpecula |
| Period | 20.732 ms (48 Hz) |
| Period derivative | 4.3×10⁻¹⁸ s/s |
| Characteristic age | 77 million years |
| Magnetic field | 9.5×10⁹ G |
| Spin-down luminosity | 1.9×10³⁴ erg/s |
| Dispersion measure | 315.3 pc/cm³ |
| Distance | 10,030 pc (32.7 thousand ly) |
| Companion | CO white dwarf (estimated), ~1.13 M☉ |
| Orbital period | 9.41 h |
| Eccentricity | 0.000041 |
| Discovery | 2011 · palfa, fast_gpps |
| Source | ATNF Pulsar Catalogue |
| Right ascension (J2000) | 19h 52m 36.8s |
| Declination (J2000) | +26° 30′ 28″ |
In the sky
Visible from the whole Northern Hemisphere and south to latitude 63° S. North of latitude 63° 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 33 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 580 million years.