Pulsar
PSR B1642-03 (J1645-0317)
Radio pulsar
A neutron star spinning once every 0.388 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 | Ophiuchus |
| Period | 387.7 ms |
| Period derivative | 1.8×10⁻¹⁵ s/s |
| Characteristic age | 3.5 million years |
| Magnetic field | 8.4×10¹¹ G |
| Spin-down luminosity | 1.2×10³³ erg/s |
| Dispersion measure | 35.8 pc/cm³ |
| Distance | 4,000 pc (13.0 thousand ly) |
| Discovery | 1969 · misc, gb2, gb3, lotaas, mol1, mol2, pks70, pkssw |
| Source | ATNF Pulsar Catalogue |
| Right ascension (J2000) | 16h 45m 02.0s |
| Declination (J2000) | −3° 17′ 58″ |
In the sky
Visible from the whole Southern Hemisphere and north to latitude 87° N. 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 13 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 231 million years.