Pulsar
PSR B0919+06 (J0922+0638)
Radio pulsar
A neutron star spinning once every 0.431 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 | Leo |
| Period | 430.6 ms |
| Period derivative | 1.4×10⁻¹⁴ s/s |
| Characteristic age | 497 thousand years |
| Magnetic field | 2.5×10¹² G |
| Spin-down luminosity | 6.8×10³³ erg/s |
| Dispersion measure | 27.3 pc/cm³ |
| Distance | 1,100 pc (3.6 thousand ly) |
| Discovery | 1978 · mol2, FermiBlind, ar327, ar4, gb4, lotaas, misc, pkshl |
| Source | ATNF Pulsar Catalogue |
| Right ascension (J2000) | 9h 22m 14.0s |
| Declination (J2000) | +6° 38′ 23″ |
In the sky
Visible from the whole Northern Hemisphere and south to latitude 83° S. It stands highest at midnight in February, the best time to observe it.
Through a telescope from Earth
Light's journey
The light you see tonight set out around 1563 BC. At the speed of Voyager 1, the fastest craft leaving the Solar System (16.9 km per second), the trip would take 64 million years.