Pulsar
PSR J2017-1614
Millisecond pulsar · binary system
A millisecond pulsar spinning 432 times per second: an old neutron star spun up again (“recycled”) by matter transferred from a companion. It shares a 2.35 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 | Capricornus |
| Period | 2.314 ms (432 Hz) |
| Period derivative | 2.4×10⁻²¹ s/s |
| Characteristic age | 15.0 billion years |
| Magnetic field | 7.6×10⁷ G |
| Spin-down luminosity | 7.8×10³³ erg/s |
| Dispersion measure | 25.4 pc/cm³ |
| Distance | 2,400 pc (7.8 thousand ly) |
| Companion | very-low-mass companion (estimated), ~0.030 M☉ |
| Orbital period | 2.35 h |
| Discovery | 2016 · FermiAssoc |
| Source | ATNF Pulsar Catalogue |
| Right ascension (J2000) | 20h 17m 46.2s |
| Declination (J2000) | −16° 14′ 15″ |
In the sky
Visible from the whole Southern Hemisphere and north to latitude 74° N. South of latitude 74° S 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 7,828 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 139 million years.