Pulsar
PSR B1804-27 (J1807-2715)
Radio pulsar
A neutron star spinning once every 0.828 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 | 827.8 ms |
| Period derivative | 1.2×10⁻¹⁴ s/s |
| Characteristic age | 1.1 million years |
| Magnetic field | 3.2×10¹² G |
| Spin-down luminosity | 8.5×10³² erg/s |
| Dispersion measure | 312.5 pc/cm³ |
| Distance | 15,320 pc (50.0 thousand ly) |
| Discovery | 1978 · mol2, gbncc, htru_pks, misc, pks70, pksmb |
| Source | ATNF Pulsar Catalogue |
| Right ascension (J2000) | 18h 07m 08.5s |
| Declination (J2000) | −27° 15′ 03″ |
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 50 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 886 million years.