Astronomers from Columbia University and the University of California, Berkeley, using the Green Bank Telescope (GBT), have discovered a new double millisecond pulsar. The recently discovered pulsar, designated PSR J0212+5321, belongs to the “red” subclass and is relatively nearby. The discovery was reported June 8 on the preprocessing server. arXiv.

The fastest spinning pulsars are known as millisecond pulsars (MSPs), with spin periods shorter than 30 milliseconds. The researchers suggest that they form in binary systems when the more massive component first transforms into a neutron star and then spins upward through the accumulation of matter from the secondary star.

An extreme class of binary pulsars with semi-degenerate companion stars are called “spider-throwers”. These objects are also classified as “black widows” if the satellite has an extremely low mass (less than 0.1 solar masses) and are called “redbacks” if the secondary star is heavier.

Now a team of astronomers led by Karen I. Perez of Columbia University has reported the discovery of a new red star. The pulsar was discovered during a targeted GBT search for an optical red-back candidate coinciding with the gamma-ray source 3FGL J0212.5+5320.

“With the Robert C. Byrd Green Bank Telescope, we detected a putative rotating MSP in the 3FGL J0212.1+5320 gamma-ray system using an L-band receiver at a center frequency of 1501 MHz using the Breakthrough Listen digital receiver,” the scientists write in a research paper.

Located about 3750 light-years away, PSR J0212+5321 has a rotation period of about 2.11 milliseconds and a dispersion measure of about 25.7 pc/cm.³. The orbital period of the system was almost 0.87 days.

Collected data show that PSR J0212+5321 experiences wide-orbit dimming similar to other redbacks, as well as delays in scintillation and dispersion measurements due to its interaction with the satellite and its surroundings. The astronomers noted that PSR J0212+5321 is therefore the longest-period MSP eclipsing binary known to date.

The study also found that the PSR J0212+5321 system has a mass ratio of 0.247 and exhibits a relatively high X-ray luminosity; The authors of the article recommend further investigation of PSR J0212+5321 to pinpoint its properties and better understand its behavior.

“Future observations and the long-term timing of PSR J0212+5321 will allow us to measure the derivative of its rotation period to calculate its decreasing luminosity, which is probably one of the highest among MSPs based on its high X-ray luminosity.” The researchers came to the conclusion.