Pulsar
PSR B0736-40 (J0738-4042)
Radio pulsar
A neutron star spinning once every 0.375 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 | 374.9 ms |
| Period derivative | 1.4×10⁻¹⁵ s/s |
| Characteristic age | 4.3 million years |
| Magnetic field | 7.3×10¹¹ G |
| Spin-down luminosity | 1.0×10³³ erg/s |
| Dispersion measure | 160.9 pc/cm³ |
| Distance | 1,600 pc (5.2 thousand ly) |
| Discovery | 1968 · mol1, htru_pks, misc, mol2, pks70, pkshl |
| Source | ATNF Pulsar Catalogue |
| Right ascension (J2000) | 7h 38m 32.3s |
| Declination (J2000) | −40° 42′ 40″ |
In the sky
Visible from the whole Southern Hemisphere and north to latitude 49° N. South of latitude 49° 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 5,219 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 93 million years.