Pulsar
PSR B1813-17 (J1816-1729)
Radio pulsar
A neutron star spinning once every 0.782 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 | 782.3 ms |
| Period derivative | 7.3×10⁻¹⁵ s/s |
| Characteristic age | 1.7 million years |
| Magnetic field | 2.4×10¹² G |
| Spin-down luminosity | 6.0×10³² erg/s |
| Dispersion measure | 523.0 pc/cm³ |
| Distance | 4,442 pc (14.5 thousand ly) |
| Discovery | 1992 · jb2, htru_pks, misc, pksmb |
| Source | ATNF Pulsar Catalogue |
| Right ascension (J2000) | 18h 16m 18.7s |
| Declination (J2000) | −17° 29′ 03″ |
In the sky
Visible from the whole Southern Hemisphere and north to latitude 73° N. South of latitude 73° 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 14 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 257 million years.