juliensimon/pulsar-catalog

ATNF Pulsar Catalogue

Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Part of a dataset collection on Hugging Face.

Dataset description

Complete catalog of known radio pulsars from the ATNF Pulsar Catalogue, including spin parameters, dispersion measures, flux densities, and derived quantities.

Pulsars are rapidly rotating neutron stars that emit beams of electromagnetic radiation. The ATNF Pulsar Catalogue (Manchester et al. 2005) is the definitive reference catalog, maintained by CSIRO. It includes spin period, period derivative, dispersion measure, flux density, distance estimates, and derived quantities such as characteristic age, surface magnetic field, and spin-down luminosity.

Millisecond pulsars (period < 30 ms) are ancient pulsars spun up by accretion from a companion star. They are among the most precise clocks in the universe and are used for pulsar timing arrays to detect gravitational waves.

The physics encoded in this catalog is remarkably rich. The spin period P and its time derivative P-dot together constrain the pulsar's magnetic field strength (B ~ 3.2e19 sqrt(P * P-dot) Gauss), characteristic age (tau ~ P / 2P-dot), and spin-down luminosity. Plotting P vs. P-dot produces the famous pulsar "island diagram," revealing distinct populations: normal pulsars clustered around P ~ 0.5 s with B ~ 10^12 G, millisecond pulsars in the lower-left corner with B ~ 10^8-9 G and ages exceeding the Hubble time, and magnetars in the upper-right with B > 10^14 G.

This dataset is suitable for tabular classification tasks.

Schema

Column	Type	Description	Sample	Null %
name	str	Primary pulsar designation in the J2000 naming convention (e.g. 'J0437-4715'); encodes approximate right ascension (HHMM) and declination (+-DDMM)	PSR J0002+6216	0.0%
alt_name	str	Alternative B1950 designation (e.g. 'B0833-45' for Vela); many historically important pulsars are better known by their B-names; null for recently discovered pulsars	PSR B0011+47	87.8%
ra	float64	Right ascension in decimal degrees (ICRS J2000.0)	0.742375	0.0%
dec	float64	Declination in decimal degrees (ICRS J2000.0)	62.26927778	0.0%
period	float64	Barycentric spin period in seconds, corrected for Earth's orbital motion; normal pulsars: 0.1-5 s, millisecond pulsars: <0.03 s (fastest known: ~1.4 ms); the most precisely measured quantity for each pulsar	0.115363568268	1.5%
period_dot	float64	First time derivative of the spin period (dimensionless, s/s); positive values indicate spin-down (energy loss); normal pulsars: ~10^-15, millisecond pulsars: ~10^-20, magnetars: ~10^-11; null if timing baseline is too short	5.96703e-15	33.9%
dm	float64	Dispersion measure in pc/cm^3 -- the integrated column density of free electrons along the line of sight; used with Galactic electron density models (NE2001, YMW16) to estimate distance; higher DM implies greater distance or denser intervening medium	218.6	2.7%
flux_1400_mhz	float64	Mean radio flux density at 1400 MHz in milliJansky (mJy); most pulsars: 0.1-10 mJy; null for pulsars not detected at this frequency or measured only at other frequencies	0.022	30.3%
dm_distance	float64	Distance estimate in kiloparsecs derived from the dispersion measure using a Galactic free-electron density model; typical uncertainty ~20-30%; null if DM is unmeasured	6.357	2.7%
age	float64	Characteristic spin-down age in years, defined as tau = P / (2Pdot); an upper limit on true age since it assumes the pulsar was born spinning infinitely fast; normal pulsars: 10^4-10^8 yr, millisecond pulsars: often exceed the Hubble time	306000.0	35.6%
b_surf	float64	Estimated surface dipole magnetic field strength in Gauss, derived as B = 3.2e19 sqrt(P*Pdot); magnetars: 10^14-10^15 G, normal pulsars: 10^12-10^13 G, millisecond pulsars (recycled): 10^8-10^9 G; null if period_dot is unavailable	840000000000.0	35.6%
e_dot	float64	Spin-down luminosity (rotational energy loss rate) in erg/s, defined as Edot = -4pi^2IPdot/P^3 where I ~ 10^45 g cm^2 is the moment of inertia; ranges from ~10^30 to ~10^38 erg/s; the Crab pulsar has Edot ~ 5e38 erg/s	1.5e+35	35.6%
pulsar_type	str	Physical classification: 'PSR' (radio pulsar), 'SGR' (soft gamma repeater / magnetar), 'AXP' (anomalous X-ray pulsar / magnetar), 'XINS' (X-ray isolated neutron star), 'RRAT' (rotating radio transient emitting sporadic bursts); null for unclassified sources	HE	0.0%
pm_tot	float64	Total proper motion in mas/yr (milliarcseconds per year), combining RA and Dec components; pulsars have high space velocities (median ~200 km/s) due to natal supernova kicks; null if astrometric solution is unavailable	35.3	83.8%
discovery_date	int64	Year of discovery publication; ranges from 1967 (first pulsar, CP 1919) to present	2017	0.0%
assoc_object	str	Astrophysical associations such as supernova remnant (SNR), globular cluster name, or X-ray source; important for age and formation history; null for isolated field pulsars with no known association	GRS:4FGL_J0002.8+6217[aab+22],XRS:1XS...	84.3%
binary_model	str	Orbital dynamics model used to fit the binary system (e.g. 'BT' for Blandford-Teukolsky, 'DD' for Damour-Deruelle, 'ELL1' for near-circular orbits); null for isolated (non-binary) pulsars	ELL1	88.6%
is_millisecond	object	Derived flag: True if period < 30 ms, indicating a recycled pulsar spun up by accretion from a companion; millisecond pulsars are among the most stable clocks in the universe and anchor pulsar timing arrays	False	1.5%
is_binary	bool	Derived flag: True if binary_model is non-null, indicating the pulsar has a detected orbital companion	False	0.0%

Quick stats

• 4,351 pulsars
• 804 millisecond pulsars (period < 30 ms)
• 497 binary pulsars
• Median period: 0.4860 s
• Median DM: 147.5 pc/cm^3

Usage

from datasets import load_dataset

ds = load_dataset("juliensimon/pulsar-catalog", split="train")
df = ds.to_pandas()

from datasets import load_dataset

ds = load_dataset("juliensimon/pulsar-catalog", split="train")
df = ds.to_pandas()

# Millisecond pulsars
msp = df[df["is_millisecond"] == True]
print(f"{len(msp):,} millisecond pulsars")

# Binary pulsars
binaries = df[df["is_binary"] == True]
print(f"{len(binaries):,} in binary systems")

# Period-period derivative diagram (P-Pdot)
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
valid = df.dropna(subset=["period", "period_dot"])
valid = valid[valid["period_dot"] > 0]
plt.scatter(valid["period"], valid["period_dot"], s=1, alpha=0.5)
plt.xscale("log"); plt.yscale("log")
plt.xlabel("Period (s)")
plt.ylabel("Period derivative (s/s)")
plt.title("P-Pdot Diagram")
plt.show()

Data source

https://heasarc.gsfc.nasa.gov/W3Browse/all/atnfpulsar.html

Related datasets

• juliensimon/gamma-ray-bursts

• juliensimon/mcgill-magnetar-catalog

• juliensimon/xray-binary-catalog

If you find this dataset useful, please consider giving it a like on Hugging Face. It helps others discover it.

About the author

Created by Julien Simon — AI Operating Partner at Fortino Capital. Part of the Space Datasets collection.

Citation

@dataset{pulsar_catalog,
  title = {ATNF Pulsar Catalogue},
  author = {juliensimon},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://huggingface.co/datasets/juliensimon/pulsar-catalog},
  publisher = {Hugging Face}
}

License

CC-BY-4.0