Pulsar
PSR B1011-58 (J1012-5857)
Radio pulsar
A neutron star spinning once every 0.820 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 | Carina |
| Period | 819.9 ms |
| Period derivative | 1.8×10⁻¹⁴ s/s |
| Characteristic age | 730 thousand years |
| Magnetic field | 3.9×10¹² G |
| Spin-down luminosity | 1.3×10³³ erg/s |
| Dispersion measure | 382.6 pc/cm³ |
| Distance | 3,180 pc (10.4 thousand ly) |
| Discovery | 1992 · pks1, htru_pks, misc, pks70, pksmb |
| Source | ATNF Pulsar Catalogue |
| Right ascension (J2000) | 10h 12m 48.5s |
| Declination (J2000) | −58° 57′ 49″ |
In the sky
Visible from the whole Southern Hemisphere and north to latitude 31° N. South of latitude 31° 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 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 184 million years.