Pulsar
PSR J2208+4610
Radio pulsar · binary system
A neutron star spinning once every 0.643 seconds; the beams from its magnetic poles sweep across Earth on every turn. It shares a 412 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 | Lacerta |
| Period | 642.5 ms |
| Period derivative | 2.7×10⁻¹⁸ s/s |
| Characteristic age | 3.8 billion years |
| Magnetic field | 4.2×10¹⁰ G |
| Spin-down luminosity | 4.0×10²⁹ erg/s |
| Dispersion measure | 63.4 pc/cm³ |
| Distance | 3,107 pc (10.1 thousand ly) |
| Companion | helium white dwarf (estimated), ~0.15 M☉ |
| Orbital period | 412 days |
| Eccentricity | 0.0329 |
| Discovery | 2023 · chime, fast_gpps |
| Source | ATNF Pulsar Catalogue |
| Right ascension (J2000) | 22h 08m 23.4s |
| Declination (J2000) | +46° 10′ 05″ |
In the sky
Visible from the whole Northern Hemisphere and south to latitude 44° S. North of latitude 44° N it never sets. 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 10 thousand 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 180 million years.