Pulsar
PSR B1541+09 (J1543+0929)
Radio pulsar
A neutron star spinning once every 0.748 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 | Serpens |
| Period | 748.4 ms |
| Period derivative | 4.3×10⁻¹⁶ s/s |
| Characteristic age | 27 million years |
| Magnetic field | 5.8×10¹¹ G |
| Spin-down luminosity | 4.1×10³¹ erg/s |
| Dispersion measure | 35.0 pc/cm³ |
| Distance | 5,900 pc (19.2 thousand ly) |
| Discovery | 1969 · misc, gb4, lotaas, mol2 |
| Source | ATNF Pulsar Catalogue |
| Right ascension (J2000) | 15h 43m 38.8s |
| Declination (J2000) | +9° 29′ 16″ |
In the sky
Visible from the whole Northern Hemisphere and south to latitude 81° S. 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 19 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 341 million years.