Pulsar
PSR B1358-63 (J1401-6357)
Radio pulsar
A neutron star spinning once every 0.843 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 | 842.8 ms |
| Period derivative | 1.7×10⁻¹⁴ s/s |
| Characteristic age | 794 thousand years |
| Magnetic field | 3.8×10¹² G |
| Spin-down luminosity | 1.1×10³³ erg/s |
| Dispersion measure | 97.7 pc/cm³ |
| Distance | 1,800 pc (5.9 thousand ly) |
| Discovery | 1978 · mol2, htru_pks, misc, pks1, pks70, pksmb |
| Source | ATNF Pulsar Catalogue |
| Right ascension (J2000) | 14h 01m 52.4s |
| Declination (J2000) | −63° 57′ 42″ |
In the sky
Visible from the whole Southern Hemisphere and north to latitude 26° N. South of latitude 26° 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 5,871 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 104 million years.