Pulsar
PSR B1316-60 (J1319-6056)
Radio pulsar
A neutron star spinning once every 0.284 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 | 284.4 ms |
| Period derivative | 1.5×10⁻¹⁵ s/s |
| Characteristic age | 3.0 million years |
| Magnetic field | 6.7×10¹¹ G |
| Spin-down luminosity | 2.6×10³³ erg/s |
| Dispersion measure | 400.6 pc/cm³ |
| Distance | 11,850 pc (38.6 thousand ly) |
| Discovery | 1992 · pks1, htru_pks, misc, pksmb |
| Source | ATNF Pulsar Catalogue |
| Right ascension (J2000) | 13h 19m 20.2s |
| Declination (J2000) | −60° 56′ 47″ |
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 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 686 million years.