Pulsar
PSR J2006+0148
Millisecond pulsar · binary system
A millisecond pulsar spinning 462 times per second: an old neutron star spun up again (“recycled”) by matter transferred from a companion. It shares a 15.63 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 | Aquila |
| Period | 2.164 ms (462 Hz) |
| Period derivative | 3.3×10⁻²¹ s/s |
| Characteristic age | 10.4 billion years |
| Magnetic field | 8.6×10⁷ G |
| Spin-down luminosity | 1.3×10³⁴ erg/s |
| Dispersion measure | 43.6 pc/cm³ |
| Distance | 2,437 pc (7.9 thousand ly) |
| Companion | helium white dwarf (estimated), ~0.18 M☉ |
| Orbital period | 15.63 h |
| Eccentricity | 0.000021 |
| Discovery | 2021 · FermiAssoc |
| Source | ATNF Pulsar Catalogue |
| Right ascension (J2000) | 20h 06m 29.1s |
| Declination (J2000) | +1° 48′ 54″ |
In the sky
Visible from the whole Northern Hemisphere and south to latitude 88° 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 7,949 years ago. At that time the first farming villages were being founded; there was no writing yet. At the speed of Voyager 1, the fastest craft leaving the Solar System (16.9 km per second), the trip would take 141 million years.