Pulsar
PSR B1700-18 (J1703-1846)
Radio pulsar
A neutron star spinning once every 0.804 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 | 804.3 ms |
| Period derivative | 1.7×10⁻¹⁵ s/s |
| Characteristic age | 7.4 million years |
| Magnetic field | 1.2×10¹² G |
| Spin-down luminosity | 1.3×10³² erg/s |
| Dispersion measure | 49.6 pc/cm³ |
| Distance | 2,800 pc (9.1 thousand ly) |
| Discovery | 1972 · mol1, misc, mol2, pks70, pkssw |
| Source | ATNF Pulsar Catalogue |
| Right ascension (J2000) | 17h 03m 51.1s |
| Declination (J2000) | −18° 46′ 15″ |
In the sky
Visible from the whole Southern Hemisphere and north to latitude 71° N. South of latitude 71° 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 9,132 years ago. At that time the first farming villages were being founded; there was no writing yet. At the speed of Voyager 1, the fastest craft leaving the Solar System (16.9 km per second), the trip would take 162 million years.