Pulsar
PSR B1641-45 (J1644-4559)
Radio pulsar
A neutron star spinning once every 0.455 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 | 455.1 ms |
| Period derivative | 2.0×10⁻¹⁴ s/s |
| Characteristic age | 359 thousand years |
| Magnetic field | 3.1×10¹² G |
| Spin-down luminosity | 8.4×10³³ erg/s |
| Dispersion measure | 478.7 pc/cm³ |
| Distance | 4,500 pc (14.7 thousand ly) |
| Discovery | 1973 · misc, htru_pks, mol2, pks1, pks70, pksmb |
| Source | ATNF Pulsar Catalogue |
| Right ascension (J2000) | 16h 44m 49.3s |
| Declination (J2000) | −45° 59′ 10″ |
In the sky
Visible from the whole Southern Hemisphere and north to latitude 44° N. South of latitude 44° 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 15 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 260 million years.