Pulsar
PSR J2015+0756
Millisecond pulsar · binary system
A millisecond pulsar spinning 231 times per second: an old neutron star spun up again (“recycled”) by matter transferred from a companion. It shares a 6.457 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 | 4.328 ms (231 Hz) |
| Period derivative | 6.7×10⁻²¹ s/s |
| Characteristic age | 10.3 billion years |
| Magnetic field | 1.7×10⁸ G |
| Spin-down luminosity | 3.2×10³³ erg/s |
| Dispersion measure | 36.4 pc/cm³ |
| Distance | 2,086 pc (6.8 thousand ly) |
| Companion | helium white dwarf (estimated), ~0.24 M☉ |
| Orbital period | 6.457 days |
| Eccentricity | 0.000003 |
| Discovery | 2023 · fast_crafts |
| Source | ATNF Pulsar Catalogue |
| Right ascension (J2000) | 20h 15m 59.6s |
| Declination (J2000) | +7° 56′ 36″ |
In the sky
Visible from the whole Northern Hemisphere and south to latitude 82° 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 6,804 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 121 million years.