Pulsar
PSR B1449-64 (J1453-6413)
Radio pulsar
A neutron star spinning once every 0.179 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 | Circinus |
| Period | 179.5 ms |
| Period derivative | 2.7×10⁻¹⁵ s/s |
| Characteristic age | 1.0 million years |
| Magnetic field | 7.1×10¹¹ G |
| Spin-down luminosity | 1.9×10³⁴ erg/s |
| Dispersion measure | 71.2 pc/cm³ |
| Distance | 2,800 pc (9.1 thousand ly) |
| Discovery | 1969 · mol1, htru_pks, misc, mol2, pks70, pksmb |
| Source | ATNF Pulsar Catalogue |
| Right ascension (J2000) | 14h 53m 32.7s |
| Declination (J2000) | −64° 13′ 16″ |
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 May, the best time to observe it.
Through a telescope from Earth
Light's journey
The light you see tonight set out 9,132 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 162 million years.