Pulsar
PSR B1356-60 (J1359-6038)
Radio pulsar
A neutron star spinning once every 0.128 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 | 127.5 ms |
| Period derivative | 6.3×10⁻¹⁵ s/s |
| Characteristic age | 319 thousand years |
| Magnetic field | 9.1×10¹¹ G |
| Spin-down luminosity | 1.2×10³⁵ erg/s |
| Dispersion measure | 293.8 pc/cm³ |
| Distance | 5,000 pc (16.3 thousand ly) |
| Discovery | 1978 · mol2, htru_pks, misc, pks1, pks70, pksmb |
| Source | ATNF Pulsar Catalogue |
| Right ascension (J2000) | 13h 59m 58.2s |
| Declination (J2000) | −60° 38′ 07″ |
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 16 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 289 million years.