Pulsar
PSR B1647-52 (J1651-5222)
Radio pulsar
A neutron star spinning once every 0.635 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 | 635.1 ms |
| Period derivative | 1.8×10⁻¹⁵ s/s |
| Characteristic age | 5.6 million years |
| Magnetic field | 1.1×10¹² G |
| Spin-down luminosity | 2.8×10³² erg/s |
| Dispersion measure | 178.3 pc/cm³ |
| Distance | 6,220 pc (20.3 thousand ly) |
| Discovery | 1978 · mol2, htru_pks, misc, pks70, pksmb, pkssw |
| Source | ATNF Pulsar Catalogue |
| Right ascension (J2000) | 16h 51m 43.0s |
| Declination (J2000) | −52° 22′ 58″ |
In the sky
Visible from the whole Southern Hemisphere and north to latitude 38° N. South of latitude 38° S it never sets. It stands highest at midnight in June, the best time to observe it.
Through a telescope from Earth
Light's journey
The light you see tonight set out 20 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 360 million years.