Pulsar
PSR B1758-03 (J1801-0357)
Radio pulsar
A neutron star spinning once every 0.921 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 | 921.5 ms |
| Period derivative | 3.3×10⁻¹⁵ s/s |
| Characteristic age | 4.4 million years |
| Magnetic field | 1.8×10¹² G |
| Spin-down luminosity | 1.7×10³² erg/s |
| Dispersion measure | 120.3 pc/cm³ |
| Distance | 5,740 pc (18.7 thousand ly) |
| Discovery | 1985 · gb3, htru_pks, lotaas, misc, pks70, pkssw |
| Source | ATNF Pulsar Catalogue |
| Right ascension (J2000) | 18h 01m 22.6s |
| Declination (J2000) | −3° 57′ 55″ |
In the sky
Visible from the whole Southern Hemisphere and north to latitude 86° 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 19 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 332 million years.