Pulsar
PSR B1636-47 (J1640-4715)
Radio pulsar
A neutron star spinning once every 0.517 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 | Ara |
| Period | 517.4 ms |
| Period derivative | 4.2×10⁻¹⁴ s/s |
| Characteristic age | 195 thousand years |
| Magnetic field | 4.7×10¹² G |
| Spin-down luminosity | 1.2×10³⁴ erg/s |
| Dispersion measure | 586.3 pc/cm³ |
| Distance | 4,905 pc (16.0 thousand ly) |
| Discovery | 1992 · pks1, htru_pks, misc, pksmb |
| Source | ATNF Pulsar Catalogue |
| Right ascension (J2000) | 16h 40m 13.1s |
| Declination (J2000) | −47° 15′ 38″ |
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 16 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 284 million years.