Pulsar
PSR B1555-55 (J1559-5545)
Radio pulsar
A neutron star spinning once every 0.957 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 | Norma |
| Period | 957.3 ms |
| Period derivative | 2.0×10⁻¹⁴ s/s |
| Characteristic age | 762 thousand years |
| Magnetic field | 4.4×10¹² G |
| Spin-down luminosity | 9.0×10³² erg/s |
| Dispersion measure | 212.9 pc/cm³ |
| Distance | 4,133 pc (13.5 thousand ly) |
| Discovery | 1978 · mol2, htru_pks, pks70, pksmb |
| Source | ATNF Pulsar Catalogue |
| Right ascension (J2000) | 15h 59m 20.7s |
| Declination (J2000) | −55° 45′ 47″ |
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 13 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 239 million years.