Pulsar
PSR J2051-0827
Millisecond pulsar · binary system
A millisecond pulsar spinning 222 times per second: an old neutron star spun up again (“recycled”) by matter transferred from a companion. It shares a 2.38 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 | Aquarius |
| Period | 4.509 ms (222 Hz) |
| Period derivative | 1.3×10⁻²⁰ s/s |
| Characteristic age | 5.6 billion years |
| Magnetic field | 2.4×10⁸ G |
| Spin-down luminosity | 5.5×10³³ erg/s |
| Dispersion measure | 20.7 pc/cm³ |
| Distance | 1,469 pc (4.8 thousand ly) |
| Companion | very-low-mass companion (estimated), ~0.031 M☉ |
| Orbital period | 2.38 h |
| Eccentricity | 0.000051 |
| Discovery | 1996 · pks70, FermiBlind, gbncc |
| Source | ATNF Pulsar Catalogue |
| Right ascension (J2000) | 20h 51m 07.5s |
| Declination (J2000) | −8° 27′ 38″ |
In the sky
Visible from the whole Southern Hemisphere and north to latitude 82° N. It stands highest at midnight in August, the best time to observe it.
Through a telescope from Earth
Light's journey
The light you see tonight set out 4,791 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 85 million years.