Pulsar
PSR B1336-64 (J1340-6456)
Radio pulsar
A neutron star spinning once every 0.379 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 | Circinus |
| Period | 378.6 ms |
| Period derivative | 5.1×10⁻¹⁵ s/s |
| Characteristic age | 1.2 million years |
| Magnetic field | 1.4×10¹² G |
| Spin-down luminosity | 3.7×10³³ erg/s |
| Dispersion measure | 76.9 pc/cm³ |
| Distance | 1,400 pc (4.6 thousand ly) |
| Discovery | 1978 · mol2, htru_pks, misc, pks70, pksmb |
| Source | ATNF Pulsar Catalogue |
| Right ascension (J2000) | 13h 40m 00.1s |
| Declination (J2000) | −64° 56′ 43″ |
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 4,566 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 81 million years.