Pulsar
PSR B1143-60 (J1146-6030)
Radio pulsar
A neutron star spinning once every 0.273 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 | 273.4 ms |
| Period derivative | 1.8×10⁻¹⁵ s/s |
| Characteristic age | 2.4 million years |
| Magnetic field | 7.1×10¹¹ G |
| Spin-down luminosity | 3.5×10³³ erg/s |
| Dispersion measure | 111.7 pc/cm³ |
| Distance | 1,634 pc (5.3 thousand ly) |
| Discovery | 1978 · mol2, htru_pks, misc, pks1, pks70, pksmb |
| Source | ATNF Pulsar Catalogue |
| Right ascension (J2000) | 11h 46m 07.7s |
| Declination (J2000) | −60° 30′ 59″ |
In the sky
Visible from the whole Southern Hemisphere and north to latitude 29° N. South of latitude 29° 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 5,329 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 95 million years.