Pulsar
PSR B1620-42 (J1623-4256)
Radio pulsar
A neutron star spinning once every 0.365 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 | 364.6 ms |
| Period derivative | 1.0×10⁻¹⁵ s/s |
| Characteristic age | 5.8 million years |
| Magnetic field | 6.1×10¹¹ G |
| Spin-down luminosity | 8.2×10³² erg/s |
| Dispersion measure | 295.0 pc/cm³ |
| Distance | 21,550 pc (70.3 thousand ly) |
| Discovery | 1978 · mol2, htru_pks, pksmb, pkssw |
| Source | ATNF Pulsar Catalogue |
| Right ascension (J2000) | 16h 23m 48.3s |
| Declination (J2000) | −42° 56′ 52″ |
In the sky
Visible from the whole Southern Hemisphere and north to latitude 47° N. South of latitude 47° 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 70 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 1.2 billion years.