Pulsar
PSR B1110-65 (J1112-6613)
Radio pulsar
A neutron star spinning once every 0.334 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 | 334.2 ms |
| Period derivative | 8.2×10⁻¹⁶ s/s |
| Characteristic age | 6.4 million years |
| Magnetic field | 5.3×10¹¹ G |
| Spin-down luminosity | 8.7×10³² erg/s |
| Dispersion measure | 249.1 pc/cm³ |
| Distance | 2,531 pc (8.3 thousand ly) |
| Discovery | 1978 · mol2, htru_pks, misc, pks70, pksmb, pkssw |
| Source | ATNF Pulsar Catalogue |
| Right ascension (J2000) | 11h 12m 38.4s |
| Declination (J2000) | −66° 13′ 05″ |
In the sky
Visible from the whole Southern Hemisphere and north to latitude 24° N. South of latitude 24° 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 8,255 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 146 million years.