A millisecond pulsar in a 32-minute binary orbit
Abstract
WE report the discovery of a millisecond pulsar in the globular cluster 47 Tucanae (NGC104). It has a spin period of 4.479 ms and is a member of a binary system with an orbital period of 32 min and an eccentricity of 0.32. The mass function, 2.9 x 10-8Msolar, is the smallest value for any known binary system. We find that the observations are consistent with a neutron star of mass 1.4 Msolar and a white-dwarf companion of mass 0.8 Msolar. The millisecond spin period combined with the very short orbital period offers, for the first time, the possibility of observing spin-orbit coupling effects predicted by general relativity theory.
- Publication:
-
Nature
- Pub Date:
- November 1989
- DOI:
- 10.1038/342158a0
- Bibcode:
- 1989Natur.342..158A
- Keywords:
-
- Binary Stars;
- Globular Clusters;
- Pulsars;
- White Dwarf Stars;
- Doppler Effect;
- Radio Telescopes;
- Relativity;
- Stellar Mass;
- Stellar Orbits;
- Astrophysics