Pulsar
PSR J2053+4650
Millisecond pulsar · binary system
A millisecond pulsar spinning 79 times per second: an old neutron star spun up again (“recycled”) by matter transferred from a companion. It shares a 2.453 days orbit with a CO white dwarf. Period, spin-down, distance and orbit come from the ATNF Pulsar Catalogue; the beam geometry is illustrative.
| Type | Pulsar |
|---|---|
| Constellation | Cygnus |
| Period | 12.586 ms (79 Hz) |
| Period derivative | 1.7×10⁻¹⁹ s/s |
| Characteristic age | 1.2 billion years |
| Magnetic field | 1.5×10⁹ G |
| Spin-down luminosity | 3.4×10³³ erg/s |
| Dispersion measure | 98.1 pc/cm³ |
| Distance | 3,809 pc (12.4 thousand ly) |
| Companion | CO white dwarf (estimated), ~1.02 M☉ |
| Orbital period | 2.453 days |
| Eccentricity | 0.000009 |
| Discovery | 2017 · htru_eff, fast_gpps, gbt820 |
| Source | ATNF Pulsar Catalogue |
| Right ascension (J2000) | 20h 53m 52.6s |
| Declination (J2000) | +46° 50′ 52″ |
In the sky
Visible from the whole Northern Hemisphere and south to latitude 43° S. North of latitude 43° 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 12 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 220 million years.