Pulsar
PSR B0756-15 (J0758-1528)
Radio pulsar
A neutron star spinning once every 0.682 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 | 682.3 ms |
| Period derivative | 1.6×10⁻¹⁵ s/s |
| Characteristic age | 6.7 million years |
| Magnetic field | 1.1×10¹² G |
| Spin-down luminosity | 2.0×10³² erg/s |
| Dispersion measure | 63.3 pc/cm³ |
| Distance | 2,708 pc (8.8 thousand ly) |
| Discovery | 1978 · mol2, gb3, misc, pks70, pkshl |
| Source | ATNF Pulsar Catalogue |
| Right ascension (J2000) | 7h 58m 29.1s |
| Declination (J2000) | −15° 28′ 09″ |
In the sky
Visible from the whole Southern Hemisphere and north to latitude 75° N. South of latitude 75° 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 8,832 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 157 million years.