Pulsar
PSR B0559-05 (J0601-0527)
Radio pulsar
A neutron star spinning once every 0.396 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 | Monoceros |
| Period | 396.0 ms |
| Period derivative | 1.3×10⁻¹⁵ s/s |
| Characteristic age | 4.8 million years |
| Magnetic field | 7.3×10¹¹ G |
| Spin-down luminosity | 8.3×10³² erg/s |
| Dispersion measure | 80.5 pc/cm³ |
| Distance | 2,060 pc (6.7 thousand ly) |
| Discovery | 1978 · mol2, misc, pks70 |
| Source | ATNF Pulsar Catalogue |
| Right ascension (J2000) | 6h 01m 59.0s |
| Declination (J2000) | −5° 27′ 51″ |
In the sky
Visible from the whole Southern Hemisphere and north to latitude 85° N. 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 6,719 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 119 million years.