Pulsar
PSR B0840-48 (J0842-4851)
Radio pulsar
A neutron star spinning once every 0.644 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 | 644.4 ms |
| Period derivative | 9.6×10⁻¹⁵ s/s |
| Characteristic age | 1.1 million years |
| Magnetic field | 2.5×10¹² G |
| Spin-down luminosity | 1.4×10³³ erg/s |
| Dispersion measure | 196.7 pc/cm³ |
| Distance | 3,091 pc (10.1 thousand ly) |
| Discovery | 1978 · mol2, ghrss, htru_pks, misc, pks70, pksmb |
| Source | ATNF Pulsar Catalogue |
| Right ascension (J2000) | 8h 42m 05.4s |
| Declination (J2000) | −48° 51′ 21″ |
In the sky
Visible from the whole Southern Hemisphere and north to latitude 41° N. South of latitude 41° 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 10 thousand 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 179 million years.