Pulsar
PSR B1756-22 (J1759-2205)
Radio pulsar
A neutron star spinning once every 0.461 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 | Sagittarius |
| Period | 461.0 ms |
| Period derivative | 1.1×10⁻¹⁴ s/s |
| Characteristic age | 673 thousand years |
| Magnetic field | 2.3×10¹² G |
| Spin-down luminosity | 4.4×10³³ erg/s |
| Dispersion measure | 177.0 pc/cm³ |
| Distance | 3,254 pc (10.6 thousand ly) |
| Discovery | 1978 · mol2, htru_pks, jb2, misc, pks1, pks70, pksmb |
| Source | ATNF Pulsar Catalogue |
| Right ascension (J2000) | 17h 59m 24.1s |
| Declination (J2000) | −22° 05′ 31″ |
In the sky
Visible from the whole Southern Hemisphere and north to latitude 68° N. South of latitude 68° 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 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 188 million years.