Pulsar
PSR B1259-63 (J1302-6350)
Radio pulsar · binary system
A neutron star spinning once every 0.048 seconds; the beams from its magnetic poles sweep across Earth on every turn. It shares a 1,237 days orbit with a neutron star. Period, spin-down, distance and orbit come from the ATNF Pulsar Catalogue; the beam geometry is illustrative.
| Type | Pulsar |
|---|---|
| Constellation | Centaurus |
| Period | 47.763 ms (21 Hz) |
| Period derivative | 2.3×10⁻¹⁵ s/s |
| Characteristic age | 332 thousand years |
| Magnetic field | 3.3×10¹¹ G |
| Spin-down luminosity | 8.3×10³⁵ erg/s |
| Dispersion measure | 146.7 pc/cm³ |
| Distance | 2,632 pc (8.6 thousand ly) |
| Companion | neutron star (estimated), ~4.14 M☉ |
| Orbital period | 1,237 days |
| Eccentricity | 0.8699 |
| Discovery | 1992 · pks1, htru_pks, pksmb |
| Source | ATNF Pulsar Catalogue |
| Right ascension (J2000) | 13h 02m 47.6s |
| Declination (J2000) | −63° 50′ 09″ |
In the sky
Visible from the whole Southern Hemisphere and north to latitude 26° N. South of latitude 26° 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 8,585 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 152 million years.