Pulsar
PSR B0957-47 (J0959-4809)
Radio pulsar
A neutron star spinning once every 0.670 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 | 670.1 ms |
| Period derivative | 8.5×10⁻¹⁷ s/s |
| Characteristic age | 125 million years |
| Magnetic field | 2.4×10¹¹ G |
| Spin-down luminosity | 1.1×10³¹ erg/s |
| Dispersion measure | 92.6 pc/cm³ |
| Distance | 361 pc (1.2 thousand ly) |
| Discovery | 1978 · mol2, htru_pks, misc, pks70, pkssw |
| Source | ATNF Pulsar Catalogue |
| Right ascension (J2000) | 9h 59m 26.2s |
| Declination (J2000) | −48° 09′ 48″ |
In the sky
Visible from the whole Southern Hemisphere and north to latitude 42° N. South of latitude 42° 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 849. At the speed of Voyager 1, the fastest craft leaving the Solar System (16.9 km per second), the trip would take 21 million years.