Pulsar
PSR J2001+0701
Millisecond pulsar · binary system
A millisecond pulsar spinning 147 times per second: an old neutron star spun up again (“recycled”) by matter transferred from a companion. It shares a 5.227 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 | Aquila |
| Period | 6.820 ms (147 Hz) |
| Period derivative | 1.4×10⁻²⁰ s/s |
| Characteristic age | 7.5 billion years |
| Magnetic field | 3.2×10⁸ G |
| Spin-down luminosity | 1.8×10³³ erg/s |
| Dispersion measure | 63.3 pc/cm³ |
| Distance | 3,782 pc (12.3 thousand ly) |
| Companion | helium white dwarf (estimated), ~0.11 M☉ |
| Orbital period | 5.227 days |
| Eccentricity | 0.000023 |
| Discovery | 2023 · fast_crafts |
| Source | ATNF Pulsar Catalogue |
| Right ascension (J2000) | 20h 01m 51.0s |
| Declination (J2000) | +7° 01′ 40″ |
In the sky
Visible from the whole Northern Hemisphere and south to latitude 83° S. 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 12 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 219 million years.