Pulsar
PSR J1953+1846A
Millisecond pulsar · in the globular cluster M71(NGC6838)
A millisecond pulsar spinning 205 times per second: an old neutron star spun up again (“recycled”) by matter transferred from a companion. It shares a 4.24 h orbit with a very-low-mass companion. Period, spin-down, distance and orbit come from the ATNF Pulsar Catalogue; the beam geometry is illustrative.
| Type | Pulsar |
|---|---|
| Constellation | Sagitta |
| Period | 4.888 ms (205 Hz) |
| Period derivative | 4.9×10⁻²⁰ s/s |
| Characteristic age | 1.6 billion years |
| Magnetic field | 4.9×10⁸ G |
| Spin-down luminosity | 1.6×10³⁴ erg/s |
| Dispersion measure | 117.3 pc/cm³ |
| Distance | 4,000 pc (13.0 thousand ly) |
| Location | in the globular cluster M71(NGC6838) |
| Companion | very-low-mass companion (estimated), ~0.037 M☉ |
| Orbital period | 4.24 h |
| Eccentricity | 0.000110 |
| Discovery | 2007 · misc, fast_gpps, fast_gcps |
| Source | ATNF Pulsar Catalogue |
| Right ascension (J2000) | 19h 53m 46.4s |
| Declination (J2000) | +18° 47′ 05″ |
In the sky
Visible from the whole Northern Hemisphere and south to latitude 71° S. North of latitude 71° 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 13 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 231 million years.