Pulsar
PSR J1953+1846C
Millisecond pulsar · in the globular cluster M71(NGC6838)
A millisecond pulsar spinning 35 times per second: an old neutron star spun up again (“recycled”) by matter transferred from a companion. It shares a 378 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 | Sagitta |
| Period | 28.933 ms (35 Hz) |
| Period derivative | 4.0×10⁻²⁰ s/s |
| Characteristic age | 11.4 billion years |
| Magnetic field | 1.1×10⁹ G |
| Spin-down luminosity | 6.6×10³¹ erg/s |
| Dispersion measure | 117.6 pc/cm³ |
| Distance | 4,000 pc (13.0 thousand ly) |
| Location | in the globular cluster M71(NGC6838) |
| Companion | helium white dwarf (estimated), ~0.42 M☉ |
| Orbital period | 378 days |
| Eccentricity | 0.000378 |
| Discovery | 2021 · fast_crafts, fast_gcps |
| Source | ATNF Pulsar Catalogue |
| Right ascension (J2000) | 19h 53m 51.6s |
| Declination (J2000) | +18° 48′ 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.