Pulsar
PSR B1737+13 (J1740+1311)
Radio pulsar
A neutron star spinning once every 0.803 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 | 803.1 ms |
| Period derivative | 1.5×10⁻¹⁵ s/s |
| Characteristic age | 8.8 million years |
| Magnetic field | 1.1×10¹² G |
| Spin-down luminosity | 1.1×10³² erg/s |
| Dispersion measure | 48.7 pc/cm³ |
| Distance | 4,113 pc (13.4 thousand ly) |
| Discovery | 1978 · mol2, ar327, gb3, gb4, lotaas, misc, pkssw |
| Source | ATNF Pulsar Catalogue |
| Right ascension (J2000) | 17h 40m 07.3s |
| Declination (J2000) | +13° 11′ 56″ |
In the sky
Visible from the whole Northern Hemisphere and south to latitude 77° S. North of latitude 77° N 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 13 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 238 million years.