Pulsar
PSR B0740-28 (J0742-2822)
Radio pulsar
A neutron star spinning once every 0.167 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 | 166.8 ms |
| Period derivative | 1.7×10⁻¹⁴ s/s |
| Characteristic age | 157 thousand years |
| Magnetic field | 1.7×10¹² G |
| Spin-down luminosity | 1.4×10³⁵ erg/s |
| Dispersion measure | 73.8 pc/cm³ |
| Distance | 2,000 pc (6.5 thousand ly) |
| Discovery | 1973 · misc, FermiBlind, htru_pks, mol2, pks70, pkshl, pksmb |
| Source | ATNF Pulsar Catalogue |
| Right ascension (J2000) | 7h 42m 49.1s |
| Declination (J2000) | −28° 22′ 44″ |
In the sky
Visible from the whole Southern Hemisphere and north to latitude 62° N. South of latitude 62° 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.