Pulsar
PSR B1718-32 (J1722-3207)
Radio pulsar
A neutron star spinning once every 0.477 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 | 477.2 ms |
| Period derivative | 6.5×10⁻¹⁶ s/s |
| Characteristic age | 12 million years |
| Magnetic field | 5.6×10¹¹ G |
| Spin-down luminosity | 2.3×10³² erg/s |
| Dispersion measure | 126.1 pc/cm³ |
| Distance | 2,929 pc (9.6 thousand ly) |
| Discovery | 1972 · jb1, gbncc, htru_pks, misc, mol2, pks1, pks70, pksmb |
| Source | ATNF Pulsar Catalogue |
| Right ascension (J2000) | 17h 22m 03.0s |
| Declination (J2000) | −32° 07′ 45″ |
In the sky
Visible from the whole Southern Hemisphere and north to latitude 58° N. South of latitude 58° 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 9,553 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 169 million years.