Pulsar
PSR B0727-18 (J0729-1836)
Radio pulsar
A neutron star spinning once every 0.510 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 | Puppis |
| Period | 510.2 ms |
| Period derivative | 1.9×10⁻¹⁴ s/s |
| Characteristic age | 426 thousand years |
| Magnetic field | 3.2×10¹² G |
| Spin-down luminosity | 5.6×10³³ erg/s |
| Dispersion measure | 61.2 pc/cm³ |
| Distance | 2,000 pc (6.5 thousand ly) |
| Discovery | 1978 · mol2, FermiAssoc, misc, pks70, pkshl, pksmb |
| Source | ATNF Pulsar Catalogue |
| Right ascension (J2000) | 7h 29m 32.3s |
| Declination (J2000) | −18° 36′ 42″ |
In the sky
Visible from the whole Southern Hemisphere and north to latitude 71° N. South of latitude 71° S it never sets. It stands highest at midnight in January, the best time to observe it.
Through a telescope from Earth
Light's journey
The light you see tonight set out 6,523 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 116 million years.