Pulsar
PSR B1804-08 (J1807-0847)
Radio pulsar
A neutron star spinning once every 0.164 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 | 163.7 ms |
| Period derivative | 2.9×10⁻¹⁷ s/s |
| Characteristic age | 90 million years |
| Magnetic field | 7.0×10¹⁰ G |
| Spin-down luminosity | 2.6×10³² erg/s |
| Dispersion measure | 112.4 pc/cm³ |
| Distance | 1,500 pc (4.9 thousand ly) |
| Discovery | 1978 · mol2, gb3, htru_pks, misc, pks70, pksmb, pkssw |
| Source | ATNF Pulsar Catalogue |
| Right ascension (J2000) | 18h 07m 38.0s |
| Declination (J2000) | −8° 47′ 43″ |
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 4,892 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 87 million years.