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A millisecond pulsar in an eclipsing binary

Nature volume 333, pages 237–239 (1988)Cite this article

Abstract

We have discovered a remarkable pulsar with period 1.6 ms, moving in a nearly circular 9.17-h orbit around a low-mass companion star. At an observing frequency of 430 MHz, the pulsar, PSR1957 + 20, is eclipsed once each orbit for about 50 minutes. For a few minutes before an eclipse becomes complete, and for more than 20 minutes after the signal reappears, the pulses are delayed by as much as several hundred microseconds—presumably as a result of propagation through plasma surrounding the companion. The pulsar's orbit about the system barycentre has a radius of 0.089 light seconds projected on to the line of sight. The observed orbital period and size, together with the fact that eclipses occur, imply a surprisingly low companion mass, only a few per cent of the mass of the Sun.

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References

  1. Rawley, L. A., Taylor, J. H., Davis, M. M. & Allen, D. W. Science 238, 761–765 (1987).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Joseph Henry Laboratories and Physics Department, Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey, 08544, USA

    A. S. Fruchter, D. R. Stinebring & J. H. Taylor

Authors
  1. A. S. Fruchter
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  2. D. R. Stinebring
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  3. J. H. Taylor
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Fruchter, A., Stinebring, D. & Taylor, J. A millisecond pulsar in an eclipsing binary. Nature 333, 237–239 (1988). https://doi.org/10.1038/333237a0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/333237a0

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