Pulsar
PSR B1718-02 (J1720-0212)
Radio pulsar
A neutron star spinning once every 0.478 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 | 477.7 ms |
| Period derivative | 8.3×10⁻¹⁷ s/s |
| Characteristic age | 91 million years |
| Magnetic field | 2.0×10¹¹ G |
| Spin-down luminosity | 3.0×10³¹ erg/s |
| Dispersion measure | 67.0 pc/cm³ |
| Distance | 2,461 pc (8.0 thousand ly) |
| Discovery | 1978 · mol2, gb2, lotaas, misc, pks70, pkssw |
| Source | ATNF Pulsar Catalogue |
| Right ascension (J2000) | 17h 20m 57.3s |
| Declination (J2000) | −2° 12′ 24″ |
In the sky
Visible from the whole Southern Hemisphere and north to latitude 88° N. 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 8,027 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 142 million years.