Pulsar
PSR B1523-55 (J1527-5552)
Radio pulsar
A neutron star spinning once every 1.05 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 | 1.049 s |
| Period derivative | 1.1×10⁻¹⁴ s/s |
| Characteristic age | 1.5 million years |
| Magnetic field | 3.5×10¹² G |
| Spin-down luminosity | 3.9×10³² erg/s |
| Dispersion measure | 370.1 pc/cm³ |
| Distance | 5,381 pc (17.6 thousand ly) |
| Discovery | 1978 · mol2, htru_pks, misc, pks70, pksmb |
| Source | ATNF Pulsar Catalogue |
| Right ascension (J2000) | 15h 27m 40.7s |
| Declination (J2000) | −55° 52′ 08″ |
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 May, the best time to observe it.
Through a telescope from Earth
Light's journey
The light you see tonight set out 18 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 311 million years.