Pulsar
PSR B0502-66 (J0502-6617)
Radio pulsar
A neutron star spinning once every 0.691 seconds; the beams from its magnetic poles sweep across Earth on every turn. Not in the Milky Way but in the Large Magellanic Cloud. Period, spin-down, distance and orbit come from the ATNF Pulsar Catalogue; the beam geometry is illustrative.
| Type | Pulsar |
|---|---|
| Constellation | Dorado |
| Host galaxy | Large Magellanic Cloud |
| Period | 691.3 ms |
| Period derivative | 2.3×10⁻¹⁴ s/s |
| Characteristic age | 474 thousand years |
| Magnetic field | 4.0×10¹² G |
| Spin-down luminosity | 2.8×10³³ erg/s |
| Dispersion measure | 68.9 pc/cm³ |
| Distance | 49,700 pc (162.1 thousand ly) |
| Discovery | 1991 · misc |
| Source | ATNF Pulsar Catalogue |
| Right ascension (J2000) | 5h 02m 50.5s |
| Declination (J2000) | −66° 17′ 59″ |
In the sky
Visible from the whole Southern Hemisphere and north to latitude 24° N. South of latitude 24° S it never sets. It stands highest at midnight in December, the best time to observe it.
Through a telescope from Earth
Light's journey
The light you see tonight set out 162 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 2.9 billion years.