A Radio Pulsar Spinning at 716 Hz
University of British Columbia · National Radio Astronomy Observatory · +3 more institutions
Abstract
We have discovered a 716-hertz eclipsing binary radio pulsar in the globular cluster Terzan 5 using the Green Bank Telescope. It is the fastest spinning neutron star found to date, breaking the 24-year record held by the 642-hertz pulsar B1937+21. The difficulty in detecting this pulsar, because of its very low flux density and high eclipse fraction (approximately 40% of the orbit), suggests that even faster spinning neutron stars exist. If the pulsar has a mass less than twice the mass of the Sun, then its radius must be constrained by the spin rate to be
Citation impact
- FWCI
- 18.47
- Percentile
- 100%
- References
- 29
Authors
6- JWJ. W. T. HesselsCorresponding
University of British Columbia, National Radio Astronomy Observatory, Arecibo Observatory, McGill University, Columbia University
- SMS. M. Ransom
University of British Columbia, National Radio Astronomy Observatory, Arecibo Observatory, McGill University, Columbia University
- IHI. H. Stairs
University of British Columbia, National Radio Astronomy Observatory, Arecibo Observatory, McGill University, Columbia University
- PCP. C. C. Freire
University of British Columbia, National Radio Astronomy Observatory, Arecibo Observatory, McGill University, Columbia University
- VMV. M. Kaspi
University of British Columbia, National Radio Astronomy Observatory, Arecibo Observatory, McGill University, Columbia University
Topics & keywords
- Pulsar
- Physics
- Neutron star
- Astrophysics
- X-ray pulsar
- Astronomy
- Millisecond pulsar
- Binary pulsar