Pulsar
PSR J2038+3447
Radio pulsar · binary system
A neutron star spinning once every 0.160 seconds; the beams from its magnetic poles sweep across Earth on every turn. It shares a 461 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 | Cygnus |
| Period | 160.2 ms |
| Period derivative | 9.0×10⁻¹⁹ s/s |
| Characteristic age | 2.8 billion years |
| Magnetic field | 1.2×10¹⁰ G |
| Spin-down luminosity | 8.7×10³⁰ erg/s |
| Dispersion measure | 57.9 pc/cm³ |
| Distance | 3,841 pc (12.5 thousand ly) |
| Companion | helium white dwarf (estimated), ~0.42 M☉ |
| Orbital period | 461 days |
| Eccentricity | 0.000817 |
| Discovery | 2024 · misc |
| Source | ATNF Pulsar Catalogue |
| Right ascension (J2000) | 20h 38m 21.3s |
| Declination (J2000) | +34° 47′ 54″ |
In the sky
Visible from the whole Northern Hemisphere and south to latitude 55° S. North of latitude 55° 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 222 million years.