Pulsar
PSR B0148-06 (J0151-0635)
Radio pulsar
A neutron star spinning once every 1.46 seconds; the beams from its magnetic poles sweep across Earth on every turn. Period, spin-down, distance and orbit come from the ATNF Pulsar Catalogue; the beam geometry is illustrative.
| Type | Pulsar |
|---|---|
| Constellation | Cetus |
| Period | 1.465 s |
| Period derivative | 4.4×10⁻¹⁶ s/s |
| Characteristic age | 52 million years |
| Magnetic field | 8.2×10¹¹ G |
| Spin-down luminosity | 5.6×10³⁰ erg/s |
| Dispersion measure | 25.5 pc/cm³ |
| Distance | 25,000 pc (81.5 thousand ly) |
| Discovery | 1978 · mol2, misc, pks70 |
| Source | ATNF Pulsar Catalogue |
| Right ascension (J2000) | 1h 51m 22.7s |
| Declination (J2000) | −6° 35′ 03″ |
In the sky
Visible from the whole Southern Hemisphere and north to latitude 83° N. It stands highest at midnight in October, the best time to observe it.
Through a telescope from Earth
Light's journey
The light you see tonight set out 82 thousand years ago. At that time Homo sapiens was spreading out of Africa; there was no farming yet. At the speed of Voyager 1, the fastest craft leaving the Solar System (16.9 km per second), the trip would take 1.4 billion years.