Pulsar
PSR B1015-56 (J1017-5621)
Radio pulsar
A neutron star spinning once every 0.503 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 | 503.5 ms |
| Period derivative | 3.1×10⁻¹⁵ s/s |
| Characteristic age | 2.5 million years |
| Magnetic field | 1.3×10¹² G |
| Spin-down luminosity | 9.7×10³² erg/s |
| Dispersion measure | 437.9 pc/cm³ |
| Distance | 3,509 pc (11.4 thousand ly) |
| Discovery | 1978 · mol2, htru_pks, misc, pks1, pks70, pksmb |
| Source | ATNF Pulsar Catalogue |
| Right ascension (J2000) | 10h 17m 12.8s |
| Declination (J2000) | −56° 21′ 31″ |
In the sky
Visible from the whole Southern Hemisphere and north to latitude 34° N. South of latitude 34° 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 11 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 203 million years.