Pulsar
PSR B0835-41 (J0837-4135)
Radio pulsar
A neutron star spinning once every 0.752 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 | Vela |
| Period | 751.6 ms |
| Period derivative | 3.5×10⁻¹⁵ s/s |
| Characteristic age | 3.4 million years |
| Magnetic field | 1.7×10¹² G |
| Spin-down luminosity | 3.3×10³² erg/s |
| Dispersion measure | 147.2 pc/cm³ |
| Distance | 1,500 pc (4.9 thousand ly) |
| Discovery | 1968 · mol1, htru_pks, misc, mol2, pks70, pkshl, pksmb |
| Source | ATNF Pulsar Catalogue |
| Right ascension (J2000) | 8h 37m 21.2s |
| Declination (J2000) | −41° 35′ 15″ |
In the sky
Visible from the whole Southern Hemisphere and north to latitude 48° N. South of latitude 48° 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 4,892 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 87 million years.