Pulsar
PSR B0941-56 (J0942-5657)
Radio pulsar
A neutron star spinning once every 0.808 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 | 808.2 ms |
| Period derivative | 4.0×10⁻¹⁴ s/s |
| Characteristic age | 324 thousand years |
| Magnetic field | 5.7×10¹² G |
| Spin-down luminosity | 3.0×10³³ erg/s |
| Dispersion measure | 160.1 pc/cm³ |
| Distance | 406 pc (1.3 thousand ly) |
| Discovery | 1978 · mol2, htru_pks, misc, pks1, pks70, pksmb |
| Source | ATNF Pulsar Catalogue |
| Right ascension (J2000) | 9h 42m 54.4s |
| Declination (J2000) | −56° 57′ 43″ |
In the sky
Visible from the whole Southern Hemisphere and north to latitude 33° N. South of latitude 33° S it never sets. 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 the year 702. At the speed of Voyager 1, the fastest craft leaving the Solar System (16.9 km per second), the trip would take 23 million years.