Pulsar
PSR B1630-59 (J1635-5954)
Radio pulsar
A neutron star spinning once every 0.529 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 | 529.1 ms |
| Period derivative | 1.4×10⁻¹⁵ s/s |
| Characteristic age | 6.2 million years |
| Magnetic field | 8.6×10¹¹ G |
| Spin-down luminosity | 3.6×10³² erg/s |
| Dispersion measure | 134.5 pc/cm³ |
| Distance | 7,160 pc (23.4 thousand ly) |
| Discovery | 1978 · mol2, htru_pks, misc, pks70, pkssw |
| Source | ATNF Pulsar Catalogue |
| Right ascension (J2000) | 16h 35m 09.1s |
| Declination (J2000) | −59° 54′ 41″ |
In the sky
Visible from the whole Southern Hemisphere and north to latitude 30° N. South of latitude 30° 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 23 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 414 million years.