Pulsar
PSR B1612+07 (J1614+0737)
Radio pulsar
A neutron star spinning once every 1.21 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 | Hercules |
| Period | 1.207 s |
| Period derivative | 2.4×10⁻¹⁵ s/s |
| Characteristic age | 8.1 million years |
| Magnetic field | 1.7×10¹² G |
| Spin-down luminosity | 5.3×10³¹ erg/s |
| Dispersion measure | 21.4 pc/cm³ |
| Distance | 1,663 pc (5.4 thousand ly) |
| Discovery | 1978 · mol2, ar327, ar4, gb2, gb4, lotaas, misc |
| Source | ATNF Pulsar Catalogue |
| Right ascension (J2000) | 16h 14m 40.9s |
| Declination (J2000) | +7° 37′ 31″ |
In the sky
Visible from the whole Northern Hemisphere and south to latitude 82° S. 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 5,424 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 96 million years.