Pulsar
PSR J2039-3616
Millisecond pulsar · binary system
A millisecond pulsar spinning 305 times per second: an old neutron star spun up again (“recycled”) by matter transferred from a companion. It shares a 5.790 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 | Microscopium |
| Period | 3.275 ms (305 Hz) |
| Period derivative | 8.4×10⁻²¹ s/s |
| Characteristic age | 6.2 billion years |
| Magnetic field | 1.7×10⁸ G |
| Spin-down luminosity | 9.5×10³³ erg/s |
| Dispersion measure | 24.0 pc/cm³ |
| Distance | 1,705 pc (5.6 thousand ly) |
| Companion | helium white dwarf (estimated), ~0.16 M☉ |
| Orbital period | 5.790 days |
| Eccentricity | 0.000006 |
| Discovery | 2014 · gbncc, FermiAssoc |
| Source | ATNF Pulsar Catalogue |
| Right ascension (J2000) | 20h 39m 16.6s |
| Declination (J2000) | −36° 16′ 17″ |
In the sky
Visible from the whole Southern Hemisphere and north to latitude 54° N. South of latitude 54° 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 5,561 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 99 million years.