Pulsar
PSR J2022+2534
Millisecond pulsar · binary system
A millisecond pulsar spinning 378 times per second: an old neutron star spun up again (“recycled”) by matter transferred from a companion. It shares a 1.284 days 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 | Vulpecula |
| Period | 2.646 ms (378 Hz) |
| Period derivative | 6.2×10⁻²¹ s/s |
| Characteristic age | 6.8 billion years |
| Magnetic field | 1.3×10⁸ G |
| Spin-down luminosity | 1.3×10³⁴ erg/s |
| Dispersion measure | 53.7 pc/cm³ |
| Distance | 4,015 pc (13.1 thousand ly) |
| Companion | very-low-mass companion (estimated), ~0.077 M☉ |
| Orbital period | 1.284 days |
| Eccentricity | 0.000002 |
| Discovery | 2023 · gbncc |
| Source | ATNF Pulsar Catalogue |
| Right ascension (J2000) | 20h 22m 33.3s |
| Declination (J2000) | +25° 34′ 43″ |
In the sky
Visible from the whole Northern Hemisphere and south to latitude 64° S. North of latitude 64° N 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 13 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 232 million years.