Pulsar
PSR J2133-0049A
Millisecond pulsar · in the globular cluster NGC7089(M2)
A millisecond pulsar spinning 99 times per second: an old neutron star spun up again (“recycled”) by matter transferred from a companion. It shares a 4.255 days 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 | 10.149 ms (99 Hz) |
| Period derivative | 1.7×10⁻¹⁹ s/s |
| Characteristic age | 955 million years |
| Magnetic field | 1.3×10⁹ G |
| Spin-down luminosity | 6.4×10³³ erg/s |
| Dispersion measure | 43.4 pc/cm³ |
| Distance | 11,690 pc (38.1 thousand ly) |
| Location | in the globular cluster NGC7089(M2) |
| Companion | helium white dwarf (estimated), ~0.19 M☉ |
| Orbital period | 4.255 days |
| Eccentricity | 0.0752 |
| Discovery | 2021 · fast_crafts |
| Source | ATNF Pulsar Catalogue |
| Right ascension (J2000) | 21h 33m 27.1s |
| Declination (J2000) | −0° 49′ 12″ |
In the sky
Visible from the whole Southern Hemisphere and north to latitude 89° 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 38 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 676 million years.