Pulsar
PSR B0410+69 (J0415+6954)
Radio pulsar
A neutron star spinning once every 0.391 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 | Camelopardalis |
| Period | 390.7 ms |
| Period derivative | 7.7×10⁻¹⁷ s/s |
| Characteristic age | 81 million years |
| Magnetic field | 1.8×10¹¹ G |
| Spin-down luminosity | 5.1×10³¹ erg/s |
| Dispersion measure | 27.4 pc/cm³ |
| Distance | 1,367 pc (4.5 thousand ly) |
| Discovery | 1985 · gb2, gb4, gbncc, lotaas |
| Source | ATNF Pulsar Catalogue |
| Right ascension (J2000) | 4h 15m 55.7s |
| Declination (J2000) | +69° 54′ 10″ |
In the sky
Visible from the whole Northern Hemisphere and south to latitude 20° S. North of latitude 20° N 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 4,459 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 79 million years.