Pulsar
PSR B1044-57 (J1046-5813)
Radio pulsar
A neutron star spinning once every 0.369 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 | 369.4 ms |
| Period derivative | 1.2×10⁻¹⁵ s/s |
| Characteristic age | 5.1 million years |
| Magnetic field | 6.6×10¹¹ G |
| Spin-down luminosity | 9.0×10³² erg/s |
| Dispersion measure | 240.0 pc/cm³ |
| Distance | 2,340 pc (7.6 thousand ly) |
| Discovery | 1978 · mol2, htru_pks, misc, pks1, pks70, pksmb |
| Source | ATNF Pulsar Catalogue |
| Right ascension (J2000) | 10h 46m 18.8s |
| Declination (J2000) | −58° 13′ 52″ |
In the sky
Visible from the whole Southern Hemisphere and north to latitude 32° N. South of latitude 32° S it never sets. It stands highest at midnight in March, the best time to observe it.
Through a telescope from Earth
Light's journey
The light you see tonight set out 7,632 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 135 million years.