Pulsar
PSR B1737-39 (J1741-3927)
Radio pulsar
A neutron star spinning once every 0.512 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 | 512.2 ms |
| Period derivative | 1.7×10⁻¹⁵ s/s |
| Characteristic age | 4.7 million years |
| Magnetic field | 9.5×10¹¹ G |
| Spin-down luminosity | 5.0×10³² erg/s |
| Dispersion measure | 158.3 pc/cm³ |
| Distance | 4,612 pc (15.0 thousand ly) |
| Discovery | 1978 · mol2, gbncc, htru_pks, misc, pks70, pksmb |
| Source | ATNF Pulsar Catalogue |
| Right ascension (J2000) | 17h 41m 18.1s |
| Declination (J2000) | −39° 27′ 38″ |
In the sky
Visible from the whole Southern Hemisphere and north to latitude 51° N. South of latitude 51° 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 15 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 267 million years.