Pulsar
PSR B1436-63 (J1440-6344)
Radio pulsar
A neutron star spinning once every 0.460 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 | 459.6 ms |
| Period derivative | 1.1×10⁻¹⁵ s/s |
| Characteristic age | 6.5 million years |
| Magnetic field | 7.3×10¹¹ G |
| Spin-down luminosity | 4.6×10³² erg/s |
| Dispersion measure | 124.2 pc/cm³ |
| Distance | 3,446 pc (11.2 thousand ly) |
| Discovery | 1978 · mol2, htru_pks, pks70, pksmb |
| Source | ATNF Pulsar Catalogue |
| Right ascension (J2000) | 14h 40m 31.3s |
| Declination (J2000) | −63° 44′ 48″ |
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 11 thousand 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 199 million years.