Pulsar
PSR B1732-07 (J1735-0724)
Radio pulsar
A neutron star spinning once every 0.419 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 | 419.3 ms |
| Period derivative | 1.2×10⁻¹⁵ s/s |
| Characteristic age | 5.5 million years |
| Magnetic field | 7.2×10¹¹ G |
| Spin-down luminosity | 6.5×10³² erg/s |
| Dispersion measure | 73.5 pc/cm³ |
| Distance | 6,400 pc (20.9 thousand ly) |
| Discovery | 1976 · misc, gb2, htru_pks, mol2, pks70, pkssw |
| Source | ATNF Pulsar Catalogue |
| Right ascension (J2000) | 17h 35m 05.0s |
| Declination (J2000) | −7° 24′ 52″ |
In the sky
Visible from the whole Southern Hemisphere and north to latitude 83° 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 21 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 370 million years.