Pulsar
PSR J2055+3829
Millisecond pulsar · binary system
A millisecond pulsar spinning 479 times per second: an old neutron star spun up again (“recycled”) by matter transferred from a companion. It shares a 3.11 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 | Cygnus |
| Period | 2.089 ms (479 Hz) |
| Period derivative | 10.0×10⁻²² s/s |
| Characteristic age | 33.1 billion years |
| Magnetic field | 4.6×10⁷ G |
| Spin-down luminosity | 4.3×10³³ erg/s |
| Dispersion measure | 91.8 pc/cm³ |
| Distance | 4,587 pc (15.0 thousand ly) |
| Companion | very-low-mass companion (estimated), ~0.026 M☉ |
| Orbital period | 3.11 h |
| Eccentricity | 0.000010 |
| Discovery | 2019 · misc, fast_gpps |
| Source | ATNF Pulsar Catalogue |
| Right ascension (J2000) | 20h 55m 10.3s |
| Declination (J2000) | +38° 29′ 31″ |
In the sky
Visible from the whole Northern Hemisphere and south to latitude 52° S. North of latitude 52° 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 15 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 265 million years.