Pulsar
PSR B1648-42 (J1651-4246)
Radio pulsar
A neutron star spinning once every 0.844 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 | Scorpius |
| Period | 844.1 ms |
| Period derivative | 4.8×10⁻¹⁵ s/s |
| Characteristic age | 2.8 million years |
| Magnetic field | 2.0×10¹² G |
| Spin-down luminosity | 3.2×10³² erg/s |
| Dispersion measure | 483.2 pc/cm³ |
| Distance | 5,200 pc (17.0 thousand ly) |
| Discovery | 1978 · mol2, htru_pks, misc, pks1, pks70, pksmb |
| Source | ATNF Pulsar Catalogue |
| Right ascension (J2000) | 16h 51m 48.8s |
| Declination (J2000) | −42° 46′ 10″ |
In the sky
Visible from the whole Southern Hemisphere and north to latitude 47° N. South of latitude 47° 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 17 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 301 million years.