Pulsar
PSR B1600-27 (J1603-2712)
Radio pulsar
A neutron star spinning once every 0.778 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 | Scorpius |
| Period | 778.3 ms |
| Period derivative | 3.0×10⁻¹⁵ s/s |
| Characteristic age | 4.1 million years |
| Magnetic field | 1.6×10¹² G |
| Spin-down luminosity | 2.5×10³² erg/s |
| Dispersion measure | 46.0 pc/cm³ |
| Distance | 2,285 pc (7.5 thousand ly) |
| Discovery | 1978 · mol2, misc, pks70, pkssw |
| Source | ATNF Pulsar Catalogue |
| Right ascension (J2000) | 16h 03m 08.1s |
| Declination (J2000) | −27° 13′ 27″ |
In the sky
Visible from the whole Southern Hemisphere and north to latitude 63° N. South of latitude 63° 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 7,453 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 132 million years.