Pulsar
PSR J2322-2650
Millisecond pulsar · binary system
A millisecond pulsar spinning 289 times per second: an old neutron star spun up again (“recycled”) by matter transferred from a companion. It shares a 7.75 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 | Sculptor |
| Period | 3.463 ms (289 Hz) |
| Period derivative | 5.8×10⁻²² s/s |
| Characteristic age | 94.1 billion years |
| Magnetic field | 4.6×10⁷ G |
| Spin-down luminosity | 5.5×10³² erg/s |
| Dispersion measure | 6.1 pc/cm³ |
| Distance | 2,000 pc (6.5 thousand ly) |
| Companion | very-low-mass companion (estimated), ~0.001 M☉ |
| Orbital period | 7.75 h |
| Eccentricity | 0.000800 |
| Discovery | 2018 · htru_pks |
| Source | ATNF Pulsar Catalogue |
| Right ascension (J2000) | 23h 22m 34.6s |
| Declination (J2000) | −26° 50′ 59″ |
In the sky
Visible from the whole Southern Hemisphere and north to latitude 63° N. South of latitude 63° S it never sets. 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 6,523 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 116 million years.