Pulsar
PSR J2150-0326
Millisecond pulsar · binary system
A millisecond pulsar spinning 285 times per second: an old neutron star spun up again (“recycled”) by matter transferred from a companion. It shares a 4.045 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 | 3.511 ms (285 Hz) |
| Period derivative | 8.2×10⁻²¹ s/s |
| Characteristic age | 6.8 billion years |
| Magnetic field | 1.7×10⁸ G |
| Spin-down luminosity | 7.4×10³³ erg/s |
| Dispersion measure | 20.7 pc/cm³ |
| Distance | 1,976 pc (6.4 thousand ly) |
| Companion | helium white dwarf (estimated), ~0.21 M☉ |
| Orbital period | 4.045 days |
| Eccentricity | 0.000010 |
| Discovery | 2020 · gbncc |
| Source | ATNF Pulsar Catalogue |
| Right ascension (J2000) | 21h 50m 27.2s |
| Declination (J2000) | −3° 26′ 33″ |
In the sky
Visible from the whole Southern Hemisphere and north to latitude 87° 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 6,445 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 114 million years.