Pulsar
PSR B1030-58 (J1032-5911)
Radio pulsar
A neutron star spinning once every 0.464 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 | 464.2 ms |
| Period derivative | 1.8×10⁻¹⁵ s/s |
| Characteristic age | 4.1 million years |
| Magnetic field | 9.2×10¹¹ G |
| Spin-down luminosity | 7.1×10³² erg/s |
| Dispersion measure | 418.2 pc/cm³ |
| Distance | 3,005 pc (9.8 thousand ly) |
| Discovery | 1978 · mol2, htru_pks, pks70, pksmb |
| Source | ATNF Pulsar Catalogue |
| Right ascension (J2000) | 10h 32m 04.9s |
| Declination (J2000) | −59° 11′ 55″ |
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 9,801 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 174 million years.