Pulsar
PSR B1317-53 (J1320-5359)
Radio pulsar
A neutron star spinning once every 0.280 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 | 279.7 ms |
| Period derivative | 9.2×10⁻¹⁵ s/s |
| Characteristic age | 479 thousand years |
| Magnetic field | 1.6×10¹² G |
| Spin-down luminosity | 1.7×10³⁴ erg/s |
| Dispersion measure | 97.3 pc/cm³ |
| Distance | 2,217 pc (7.2 thousand ly) |
| Discovery | 1978 · mol2, ghrss, htru_pks, misc, pks70, pkssw |
| Source | ATNF Pulsar Catalogue |
| Right ascension (J2000) | 13h 20m 53.9s |
| Declination (J2000) | −53° 59′ 05″ |
In the sky
Visible from the whole Southern Hemisphere and north to latitude 36° N. South of latitude 36° 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 7,231 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 128 million years.