Pulsar
PSR B1504-43 (J1507-4352)
Radio pulsar
A neutron star spinning once every 0.287 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 | 286.8 ms |
| Period derivative | 1.6×10⁻¹⁵ s/s |
| Characteristic age | 2.9 million years |
| Magnetic field | 6.8×10¹¹ G |
| Spin-down luminosity | 2.7×10³³ erg/s |
| Dispersion measure | 49.1 pc/cm³ |
| Distance | 1,416 pc (4.6 thousand ly) |
| Discovery | 1978 · mol2, htru_pks, misc, pks70, pkssw |
| Source | ATNF Pulsar Catalogue |
| Right ascension (J2000) | 15h 07m 34.2s |
| Declination (J2000) | −43° 52′ 04″ |
In the sky
Visible from the whole Southern Hemisphere and north to latitude 46° N. South of latitude 46° 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 4,618 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 82 million years.