Pulsar
PSR B1556-57 (J1600-5751)
Radio pulsar
A neutron star spinning once every 0.194 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 | 194.5 ms |
| Period derivative | 2.1×10⁻¹⁵ s/s |
| Characteristic age | 1.5 million years |
| Magnetic field | 6.5×10¹¹ G |
| Spin-down luminosity | 1.1×10³⁴ erg/s |
| Dispersion measure | 176.5 pc/cm³ |
| Distance | 4,182 pc (13.6 thousand ly) |
| Discovery | 1978 · mol2, htru_pks, misc, pks1, pks70, pksmb |
| Source | ATNF Pulsar Catalogue |
| Right ascension (J2000) | 16h 00m 19.9s |
| Declination (J2000) | −57° 51′ 15″ |
In the sky
Visible from the whole Southern Hemisphere and north to latitude 32° N. South of latitude 32° 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 14 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 242 million years.