Pulsar
PSR B1745-12 (J1748-1300)
Radio pulsar
A neutron star spinning once every 0.394 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 | Serpens |
| Period | 394.1 ms |
| Period derivative | 1.2×10⁻¹⁵ s/s |
| Characteristic age | 5.2 million years |
| Magnetic field | 7.0×10¹¹ G |
| Spin-down luminosity | 7.8×10³² erg/s |
| Dispersion measure | 99.4 pc/cm³ |
| Distance | 2,411 pc (7.9 thousand ly) |
| Discovery | 1978 · mol2, gb2, misc, pks70, pkssw |
| Source | ATNF Pulsar Catalogue |
| Right ascension (J2000) | 17h 48m 17.4s |
| Declination (J2000) | −13° 00′ 52″ |
In the sky
Visible from the whole Southern Hemisphere and north to latitude 77° N. South of latitude 77° 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 7,864 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 139 million years.