Discovery of a new millisecond pulsar
As part of the ongoing Southern-sky MWA Rapid Two-metre (SMART) survey, astronomers used the Murchison Widefield Array (MWA) to detect a previously unknown millisecond pulsar. The MWA is a low‑frequency radio interferometer located in Western Australia, sensitive to radio waves from roughly 80 to 300 megahertz, making it well suited for finding rapidly spinning neutron stars.
The newly found pulsar rotates with a period of only a few milliseconds, placing it in the class of millisecond pulsars whose extraordinary rotational stability allows them to serve as precise cosmic clocks. The detection was achieved by searching timedomain data for periodic pulses in the received radio signal. The results were first posted on the arXiv preprint server on June 17 and have since been accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journal Letters.
This discovery highlights the capability of the MWA to uncover faint, rapidly varying sources and adds to our knowledge of the Galactic millisecond pulsar population. Follow‑up observations are planned to refine the pulsar’s orbital parameters, magnetic field strength, and possible companion properties, which will help elucidate the formation and evolution of neutron stars in binary systems.