Pulsar
PSR J2133-0049F
Millisecond pulsar · in the globular cluster NGC7089(M2)
A millisecond pulsar spinning 209 times per second: an old neutron star spun up again (“recycled”) by matter transferred from a companion. It shares a 3.598 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 | 4.781 ms (209 Hz) |
| Period derivative | 3.0×10⁻²⁰ s/s |
| Characteristic age | 2.5 billion years |
| Magnetic field | 3.9×10⁸ G |
| Spin-down luminosity | 1.1×10³⁴ erg/s |
| Dispersion measure | 43.3 pc/cm³ |
| Distance | 25,000 pc (81.5 thousand ly) |
| Location | in the globular cluster NGC7089(M2) |
| Companion | helium white dwarf (estimated), ~0.11 M☉ |
| Orbital period | 3.598 days |
| Eccentricity | 0.000020 |
| Discovery | 2025 · misc |
| Source | ATNF Pulsar Catalogue |
| Right ascension (J2000) | 21h 33m 28.0s |
| Declination (J2000) | −0° 49′ 11″ |
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 82 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 1.4 billion years.