Pulsar
PSR B0254-53 (J0255-5304)
Radio pulsar
A neutron star spinning once every 0.448 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 | Horologium |
| Period | 447.7 ms |
| Period derivative | 3.1×10⁻¹⁷ s/s |
| Characteristic age | 227 million years |
| Magnetic field | 1.2×10¹¹ G |
| Spin-down luminosity | 1.4×10³¹ erg/s |
| Dispersion measure | 18.0 pc/cm³ |
| Distance | 1,846 pc (6.0 thousand ly) |
| Discovery | 1969 · mol1, ghrss, misc, mol2, pks70 |
| Source | ATNF Pulsar Catalogue |
| Right ascension (J2000) | 2h 55m 56.3s |
| Declination (J2000) | −53° 04′ 21″ |
In the sky
Visible from the whole Southern Hemisphere and north to latitude 37° N. South of latitude 37° S it never sets. It stands highest at midnight in November, the best time to observe it.
Through a telescope from Earth
Light's journey
The light you see tonight set out 6,021 years ago. At that time the first farming villages were being founded; there was no writing yet. At the speed of Voyager 1, the fastest craft leaving the Solar System (16.9 km per second), the trip would take 107 million years.