Pulsar
PSR B1647-528 (J1651-5255)
Radio pulsar
A neutron star spinning once every 0.891 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 | 890.5 ms |
| Period derivative | 2.1×10⁻¹⁵ s/s |
| Characteristic age | 6.7 million years |
| Magnetic field | 1.4×10¹² G |
| Spin-down luminosity | 1.2×10³² erg/s |
| Dispersion measure | 164.0 pc/cm³ |
| Distance | 5,808 pc (18.9 thousand ly) |
| Discovery | 1978 · mol2, htru_pks, pkssw |
| Source | ATNF Pulsar Catalogue |
| Right ascension (J2000) | 16h 51m 41.4s |
| Declination (J2000) | −52° 55′ 48″ |
In the sky
Visible from the whole Southern Hemisphere and north to latitude 37° N. South of latitude 37° 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 19 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 336 million years.