Pulsar
PSR B1054-62 (J1056-6258)
Radio pulsar
A neutron star spinning once every 0.422 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 | 422.5 ms |
| Period derivative | 3.6×10⁻¹⁵ s/s |
| Characteristic age | 1.9 million years |
| Magnetic field | 1.2×10¹² G |
| Spin-down luminosity | 1.9×10³³ erg/s |
| Dispersion measure | 320.7 pc/cm³ |
| Distance | 2,400 pc (7.8 thousand ly) |
| Discovery | 1978 · mol2, htru_pks, misc, pks1, pks70, pksmb |
| Source | ATNF Pulsar Catalogue |
| Right ascension (J2000) | 10h 56m 25.6s |
| Declination (J2000) | −62° 58′ 48″ |
In the sky
Visible from the whole Southern Hemisphere and north to latitude 27° N. South of latitude 27° 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 7,828 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 139 million years.