Pulsar
PSR B0523+11 (J0525+1115)
Radio pulsar
A neutron star spinning once every 0.354 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 | Orion |
| Period | 354.4 ms |
| Period derivative | 7.4×10⁻¹⁷ s/s |
| Characteristic age | 76 million years |
| Magnetic field | 1.6×10¹¹ G |
| Spin-down luminosity | 6.5×10³¹ erg/s |
| Dispersion measure | 79.4 pc/cm³ |
| Distance | 1,841 pc (6.0 thousand ly) |
| Discovery | 1978 · mol2, ar327, gb4, lotaas, misc |
| Source | ATNF Pulsar Catalogue |
| Right ascension (J2000) | 5h 25m 56.5s |
| Declination (J2000) | +11° 15′ 19″ |
In the sky
Visible from the whole Northern Hemisphere and south to latitude 79° S. North of latitude 79° N 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 6,005 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.