Pulsar
PSR B1540-06 (J1543-0620)
Radio pulsar
A neutron star spinning once every 0.709 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 | Libra |
| Period | 709.1 ms |
| Period derivative | 8.8×10⁻¹⁶ s/s |
| Characteristic age | 13 million years |
| Magnetic field | 8.0×10¹¹ G |
| Spin-down luminosity | 9.7×10³¹ erg/s |
| Dispersion measure | 18.5 pc/cm³ |
| Distance | 3,000 pc (9.8 thousand ly) |
| Discovery | 1978 · mol2, gb2, gbncc, lotaas, misc, pks70 |
| Source | ATNF Pulsar Catalogue |
| Right ascension (J2000) | 15h 43m 30.1s |
| Declination (J2000) | −6° 20′ 45″ |
In the sky
Visible from the whole Southern Hemisphere and north to latitude 84° N. 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 9,785 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 174 million years.