Pulsar
PSR B1800-27 (J1803-2712)
Radio pulsar · binary system
A neutron star spinning once every 0.334 seconds; the beams from its magnetic poles sweep across Earth on every turn. It shares a 407 days orbit with a helium white dwarf. Period, spin-down, distance and orbit come from the ATNF Pulsar Catalogue; the beam geometry is illustrative.
| Type | Pulsar |
|---|---|
| Constellation | Sagittarius |
| Period | 334.4 ms |
| Period derivative | 1.7×10⁻¹⁷ s/s |
| Characteristic age | 310 million years |
| Magnetic field | 7.7×10¹⁰ G |
| Spin-down luminosity | 1.8×10³¹ erg/s |
| Dispersion measure | 165.5 pc/cm³ |
| Distance | 3,468 pc (11.3 thousand ly) |
| Companion | helium white dwarf (estimated), ~0.17 M☉ |
| Orbital period | 407 days |
| Eccentricity | 0.000507 |
| Discovery | 1992 · pks1, htru_pks, pksmb |
| Source | ATNF Pulsar Catalogue |
| Right ascension (J2000) | 18h 03m 31.7s |
| Declination (J2000) | −27° 12′ 06″ |
In the sky
Visible from the whole Southern Hemisphere and north to latitude 63° N. South of latitude 63° 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 201 million years.