Pulsar
PSR B1524-39 (J1527-3931)
Radio pulsar
A neutron star spinning once every 2.42 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 | 2.418 s |
| Period derivative | 1.9×10⁻¹⁴ s/s |
| Characteristic age | 2.0 million years |
| Magnetic field | 6.9×10¹² G |
| Spin-down luminosity | 5.3×10³¹ erg/s |
| Dispersion measure | 48.8 pc/cm³ |
| Distance | 1,691 pc (5.5 thousand ly) |
| Discovery | 1978 · mol2, gbncc, htru_pks, pks70, pkssw |
| Source | ATNF Pulsar Catalogue |
| Right ascension (J2000) | 15h 27m 58.8s |
| Declination (J2000) | −39° 31′ 34″ |
In the sky
Visible from the whole Southern Hemisphere and north to latitude 50° N. South of latitude 50° 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 5,515 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 98 million years.