Pulsar
PSR B1302-64 (J1305-6455)
Radio pulsar
A neutron star spinning once every 0.572 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 | 571.7 ms |
| Period derivative | 4.0×10⁻¹⁵ s/s |
| Characteristic age | 2.3 million years |
| Magnetic field | 1.5×10¹² G |
| Spin-down luminosity | 8.5×10³² erg/s |
| Dispersion measure | 505.1 pc/cm³ |
| Distance | 11,900 pc (38.8 thousand ly) |
| Discovery | 1978 · mol2, htru_pks, misc, pks1, pks70, pksmb |
| Source | ATNF Pulsar Catalogue |
| Right ascension (J2000) | 13h 05m 23.4s |
| Declination (J2000) | −64° 55′ 28″ |
In the sky
Visible from the whole Southern Hemisphere and north to latitude 25° N. South of latitude 25° 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 39 thousand years ago. At that time Homo sapiens was spreading out of Africa; there was no farming yet. At the speed of Voyager 1, the fastest craft leaving the Solar System (16.9 km per second), the trip would take 689 million years.