Pulsar
PSR J2310-0555
Millisecond pulsar · binary system
A millisecond pulsar spinning 383 times per second: an old neutron star spun up again (“recycled”) by matter transferred from a companion. It shares a 1.397 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 | 2.613 ms (383 Hz) |
| Period derivative | 5.0×10⁻²¹ s/s |
| Characteristic age | 8.4 billion years |
| Magnetic field | 1.2×10⁸ G |
| Spin-down luminosity | 1.1×10³⁴ erg/s |
| Dispersion measure | 15.5 pc/cm³ |
| Distance | 1,556 pc (5.1 thousand ly) |
| Companion | helium white dwarf (estimated), ~0.17 M☉ |
| Orbital period | 1.397 days |
| Discovery | 2016 · FermiAssoc |
| Source | ATNF Pulsar Catalogue |
| Right ascension (J2000) | 23h 10m 06.4s |
| Declination (J2000) | −5° 55′ 36″ |
In the sky
Visible from the whole Southern Hemisphere and north to latitude 84° N. It stands highest at midnight in September, the best time to observe it.
Through a telescope from Earth
Light's journey
The light you see tonight set out 5,075 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 90 million years.