Pulsar
PSR B1738-08 (J1741-0840)
Radio pulsar
A neutron star spinning once every 2.04 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 | 2.043 s |
| Period derivative | 2.3×10⁻¹⁵ s/s |
| Characteristic age | 14 million years |
| Magnetic field | 2.2×10¹² G |
| Spin-down luminosity | 1.1×10³¹ erg/s |
| Dispersion measure | 75.3 pc/cm³ |
| Distance | 3,300 pc (10.8 thousand ly) |
| Discovery | 1978 · mol2, gb2, gb3, htru_pks, misc, pks70, pkssw |
| Source | ATNF Pulsar Catalogue |
| Right ascension (J2000) | 17h 41m 22.6s |
| Declination (J2000) | −8° 40′ 32″ |
In the sky
Visible from the whole Southern Hemisphere and north to latitude 81° 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 11 thousand 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 191 million years.