Pulsar
PSR B1133-55 (J1136-5525)
Radio pulsar
A neutron star spinning once every 0.365 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 | Centaurus |
| Period | 364.7 ms |
| Period derivative | 8.2×10⁻¹⁵ s/s |
| Characteristic age | 702 thousand years |
| Magnetic field | 1.8×10¹² G |
| Spin-down luminosity | 6.7×10³³ erg/s |
| Dispersion measure | 85.1 pc/cm³ |
| Distance | 1,518 pc (5.0 thousand ly) |
| Discovery | 1978 · mol2, htru_pks, misc, pks70, pkssw |
| Source | ATNF Pulsar Catalogue |
| Right ascension (J2000) | 11h 36m 02.2s |
| Declination (J2000) | −55° 25′ 07″ |
In the sky
Visible from the whole Southern Hemisphere and north to latitude 35° N. South of latitude 35° 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 4,951 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 88 million years.