The Murchison Widefield Array (MWA), as part of the Southern-sky MWA Rapid Two-metre (SMART) survey, discovered a new millisecond pulsar, PSR J0125−5854, reported on arXiv 17 June 2026 and accepted for The Astrophysical Journal Letters.
Key properties of PSR J0125−5854
- Spin period: ≈24.6 milliseconds (millisecond pulsar class).
- Dispersion measure (DM): 11.66 pc cm⁻³.
- Distance: Estimated 0.5–1 kpc (≈1,600–3,200 ly) from Galactic electron-density models.
- Galactic location: High latitude, b ≈ −57°.
- Binary status: Confirmed binary from MWA and MeerKAT follow-up; likely wide pulsar–Helium white dwarf system.
- Orbital period: 833.60 ± 0.04 days (observational lower bound previously >290 days).
- Companion mass: Minimum mass ≈0.4152 M☉ (Helium white dwarf).
Survey and instrument details
- SMART survey: Low-frequency pulsar and fast-transient search in 140–170 MHz band over southern sky.
- MWA: Aperture-array radio telescope at the Murchison Radio-astronomy Observatory, Western Australia.
- Follow-up: MeerKAT (South Africa) used to confirm binary parameters.
- Significance for future facilities: Discovery used as benchmark for SKA-Low pulsar searches.
IASPOINT Booster Facts
- Millisecond pulsar (MSP): Neutron star with spin period typically <30 ms, often recycled via accretion in binaries.
- Dispersion measure defined: Integrated free-electron column density along line of sight, unit pc cm⁻³.
- SKA-Low band: Planned low-frequency array covering ~50–350 MHz, optimised for pulsar discovery in southern hemisphere.