Pulsar
PSR B1813-26 (J1816-2650)
Radio pulsar
A neutron star spinning once every 0.593 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 | 592.9 ms |
| Period derivative | 6.7×10⁻¹⁷ s/s |
| Characteristic age | 141 million years |
| Magnetic field | 2.0×10¹¹ G |
| Spin-down luminosity | 1.3×10³¹ erg/s |
| Dispersion measure | 128.1 pc/cm³ |
| Distance | 3,592 pc (11.7 thousand ly) |
| Discovery | 1973 · jb1, htru_pks, mol2, pks70, pksmb, pkssw |
| Source | ATNF Pulsar Catalogue |
| Right ascension (J2000) | 18h 16m 35.4s |
| Declination (J2000) | −26° 49′ 53″ |
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 12 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 208 million years.