Pulsar
PSR B1256-67 (J1259-6741)
Radio pulsar
A neutron star spinning once every 0.663 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 | Musca |
| Period | 663.3 ms |
| Period derivative | 8.6×10⁻¹⁶ s/s |
| Characteristic age | 12 million years |
| Magnetic field | 7.6×10¹¹ G |
| Spin-down luminosity | 1.2×10³² erg/s |
| Dispersion measure | 91.9 pc/cm³ |
| Distance | 1,548 pc (5.0 thousand ly) |
| Discovery | 1978 · mol2, htru_pks, misc, pks70, pksmb |
| Source | ATNF Pulsar Catalogue |
| Right ascension (J2000) | 12h 59m 22.6s |
| Declination (J2000) | −67° 41′ 40″ |
In the sky
Visible from the whole Southern Hemisphere and north to latitude 22° N. South of latitude 22° S it never sets. It stands highest at midnight in April, the best time to observe it.
Through a telescope from Earth
Light's journey
The light you see tonight set out 5,049 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 90 million years.