Pulsar
PSR J2017+0603
Millisecond pulsar · binary system
A millisecond pulsar spinning 345 times per second: an old neutron star spun up again (“recycled”) by matter transferred from a companion. It shares a 2.198 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 | 2.896 ms (345 Hz) |
| Period derivative | 8.0×10⁻²¹ s/s |
| Characteristic age | 5.7 billion years |
| Magnetic field | 1.5×10⁸ G |
| Spin-down luminosity | 1.3×10³⁴ erg/s |
| Dispersion measure | 23.9 pc/cm³ |
| Distance | 1,399 pc (4.6 thousand ly) |
| Companion | helium white dwarf (estimated), ~0.21 M☉ |
| Orbital period | 2.198 days |
| Eccentricity | 0.000007 |
| Discovery | 2011 · misc, FermiBlind, fast_gpps |
| Source | ATNF Pulsar Catalogue |
| Right ascension (J2000) | 20h 17m 22.7s |
| Declination (J2000) | +6° 03′ 05″ |
In the sky
Visible from the whole Northern Hemisphere and south to latitude 84° 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 4,563 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 81 million years.