Pulsar
PSR J2052+1219
Millisecond pulsar · binary system
A millisecond pulsar spinning 504 times per second: an old neutron star spun up again (“recycled”) by matter transferred from a companion. It shares a 2.75 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 | Delphinus |
| Period | 1.985 ms (504 Hz) |
| Period derivative | 6.7×10⁻²¹ s/s |
| Characteristic age | 4.7 billion years |
| Magnetic field | 1.2×10⁸ G |
| Spin-down luminosity | 3.4×10³⁴ erg/s |
| Dispersion measure | 42.0 pc/cm³ |
| Distance | 3,916 pc (12.8 thousand ly) |
| Companion | very-low-mass companion (estimated), ~0.038 M☉ |
| Orbital period | 2.75 h |
| Discovery | 2016 · FermiAssoc |
| Source | ATNF Pulsar Catalogue |
| Right ascension (J2000) | 20h 52m 47.8s |
| Declination (J2000) | +12° 19′ 59″ |
In the sky
Visible from the whole Northern Hemisphere and south to latitude 78° S. North of latitude 78° N it never sets. 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 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 227 million years.