Pulsar
PSR B1719-37 (J1722-3712)
Radio pulsar
A neutron star spinning once every 0.236 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 | 236.2 ms |
| Period derivative | 1.1×10⁻¹⁴ s/s |
| Characteristic age | 344 thousand years |
| Magnetic field | 1.6×10¹² G |
| Spin-down luminosity | 3.3×10³⁴ erg/s |
| Dispersion measure | 99.4 pc/cm³ |
| Distance | 2,476 pc (8.1 thousand ly) |
| Discovery | 1978 · mol2, gbncc, htru_pks, misc, pks1, pks70, pksmb |
| Source | ATNF Pulsar Catalogue |
| Right ascension (J2000) | 17h 22m 59.3s |
| Declination (J2000) | −37° 12′ 04″ |
In the sky
Visible from the whole Southern Hemisphere and north to latitude 53° N. South of latitude 53° 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 8,076 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 143 million years.