Pulsar
PSR J2129-0429
Millisecond pulsar · binary system
A millisecond pulsar spinning 131 times per second: an old neutron star spun up again (“recycled”) by matter transferred from a companion. It shares a 15.25 h 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 | Aquarius |
| Period | 7.614 ms (131 Hz) |
| Period derivative | 3.3×10⁻¹⁹ s/s |
| Characteristic age | 368 million years |
| Magnetic field | 1.6×10⁹ G |
| Spin-down luminosity | 2.9×10³⁴ erg/s |
| Dispersion measure | 16.9 pc/cm³ |
| Distance | 1,830 pc (6.0 thousand ly) |
| Companion | helium white dwarf (estimated), ~0.44 M☉ |
| Orbital period | 15.25 h |
| Discovery | 2011 · FermiAssoc, gbt350, gbncc |
| Source | ATNF Pulsar Catalogue |
| Right ascension (J2000) | 21h 29m 45.0s |
| Declination (J2000) | −4° 29′ 07″ |
In the sky
Visible from the whole Southern Hemisphere and north to latitude 86° 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 5,969 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 106 million years.