Pulsar
PSR B1110-69 (J1112-6926)
Radio pulsar
A neutron star spinning once every 0.820 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 | 820.5 ms |
| Period derivative | 2.8×10⁻¹⁵ s/s |
| Characteristic age | 4.6 million years |
| Magnetic field | 1.5×10¹² G |
| Spin-down luminosity | 2.0×10³² erg/s |
| Dispersion measure | 148.7 pc/cm³ |
| Distance | 2,078 pc (6.8 thousand ly) |
| Discovery | 1978 · mol2, htru_pks, misc, pks70, pkssw |
| Source | ATNF Pulsar Catalogue |
| Right ascension (J2000) | 11h 12m 50.8s |
| Declination (J2000) | −69° 26′ 32″ |
In the sky
Visible from the whole Southern Hemisphere and north to latitude 21° N. South of latitude 21° 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 6,778 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 120 million years.