Pulsar
PSR B1417-54 (J1420-5416)
Radio pulsar
A neutron star spinning once every 0.936 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 | Lupus |
| Period | 935.8 ms |
| Period derivative | 2.3×10⁻¹⁶ s/s |
| Characteristic age | 64 million years |
| Magnetic field | 4.7×10¹¹ G |
| Spin-down luminosity | 1.1×10³¹ erg/s |
| Dispersion measure | 129.6 pc/cm³ |
| Distance | 4,399 pc (14.3 thousand ly) |
| Discovery | 1978 · mol2, htru_pks, pks70, pkssw |
| Source | ATNF Pulsar Catalogue |
| Right ascension (J2000) | 14h 20m 29.1s |
| Declination (J2000) | −54° 16′ 23″ |
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 14 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 255 million years.