Pulsar
PSR B1600-49 (J1604-4909)
Radio pulsar
A neutron star spinning once every 0.327 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 | 327.4 ms |
| Period derivative | 1.0×10⁻¹⁵ s/s |
| Characteristic age | 5.1 million years |
| Magnetic field | 5.8×10¹¹ G |
| Spin-down luminosity | 1.1×10³³ erg/s |
| Dispersion measure | 140.8 pc/cm³ |
| Distance | 3,224 pc (10.5 thousand ly) |
| Discovery | 1978 · mol2, htru_pks, misc, pks1, pks70, pksmb |
| Source | ATNF Pulsar Catalogue |
| Right ascension (J2000) | 16h 04m 23.0s |
| Declination (J2000) | −49° 09′ 58″ |
In the sky
Visible from the whole Southern Hemisphere and north to latitude 41° N. South of latitude 41° 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 11 thousand 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 187 million years.