Pulsar
PSR B1609-47 (J1613-4714)
Radio pulsar
A neutron star spinning once every 0.382 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 | 382.4 ms |
| Period derivative | 6.3×10⁻¹⁶ s/s |
| Characteristic age | 9.6 million years |
| Magnetic field | 5.0×10¹¹ G |
| Spin-down luminosity | 4.5×10³² erg/s |
| Dispersion measure | 160.2 pc/cm³ |
| Distance | 3,503 pc (11.4 thousand ly) |
| Discovery | 1978 · mol2, htru_pks, misc, pks70, pksmb |
| Source | ATNF Pulsar Catalogue |
| Right ascension (J2000) | 16h 13m 29.0s |
| Declination (J2000) | −47° 14′ 26″ |
In the sky
Visible from the whole Southern Hemisphere and north to latitude 43° N. South of latitude 43° 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 203 million years.