Pulsar
PSR J2133-0049G
Millisecond pulsar · in the globular cluster NGC7089(M2)
A millisecond pulsar spinning 394 times per second: an old neutron star spun up again (“recycled”) by matter transferred from a companion. It shares a 2.89 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 | Aquarius |
| Period | 2.536 ms (394 Hz) |
| Period derivative | 2.7×10⁻²⁰ s/s |
| Characteristic age | 1.5 billion years |
| Magnetic field | 2.6×10⁸ G |
| Spin-down luminosity | 6.5×10³⁴ erg/s |
| Dispersion measure | 43.4 pc/cm³ |
| Distance | 25,000 pc (81.5 thousand ly) |
| Location | in the globular cluster NGC7089(M2) |
| Companion | very-low-mass companion (estimated), ~0.015 M☉ |
| Orbital period | 2.89 h |
| Eccentricity | 0.000400 |
| Discovery | 2025 · misc |
| Source | ATNF Pulsar Catalogue |
| Right ascension (J2000) | 21h 33m 26.7s |
| Declination (J2000) | −0° 49′ 48″ |
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.