Pulsar
PSR B1552-31 (J1555-3134)
Radio pulsar
A neutron star spinning once every 0.518 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 | 518.1 ms |
| Period derivative | 6.2×10⁻¹⁷ s/s |
| Characteristic age | 132 million years |
| Magnetic field | 1.8×10¹¹ G |
| Spin-down luminosity | 1.8×10³¹ erg/s |
| Dispersion measure | 73.0 pc/cm³ |
| Distance | 5,299 pc (17.3 thousand ly) |
| Discovery | 1978 · mol2, misc, pks70, pkssw |
| Source | ATNF Pulsar Catalogue |
| Right ascension (J2000) | 15h 55m 18.0s |
| Declination (J2000) | −31° 34′ 20″ |
In the sky
Visible from the whole Southern Hemisphere and north to latitude 58° N. South of latitude 58° 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 17 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 307 million years.