Pulsar
PSR B1424-55 (J1428-5530)
Radio pulsar
A neutron star spinning once every 0.570 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 | 570.3 ms |
| Period derivative | 2.1×10⁻¹⁵ s/s |
| Characteristic age | 4.3 million years |
| Magnetic field | 1.1×10¹² G |
| Spin-down luminosity | 4.4×10³² erg/s |
| Dispersion measure | 81.9 pc/cm³ |
| Distance | 1,871 pc (6.1 thousand ly) |
| Discovery | 1978 · mol2, htru_pks, misc, pks70, pksmb |
| Source | ATNF Pulsar Catalogue |
| Right ascension (J2000) | 14h 28m 26.2s |
| Declination (J2000) | −55° 30′ 50″ |
In the sky
Visible from the whole Southern Hemisphere and north to latitude 34° N. South of latitude 34° 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 6,102 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 108 million years.