Pulsar
PSR B1813-36 (J1817-3618)
Radio pulsar
A neutron star spinning once every 0.387 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 | 387.0 ms |
| Period derivative | 2.0×10⁻¹⁵ s/s |
| Characteristic age | 3.0 million years |
| Magnetic field | 9.0×10¹¹ G |
| Spin-down luminosity | 1.4×10³³ erg/s |
| Dispersion measure | 94.2 pc/cm³ |
| Distance | 4,399 pc (14.3 thousand ly) |
| Discovery | 1978 · mol2, gbncc, htru_pks, misc, pks70, pkssw |
| Source | ATNF Pulsar Catalogue |
| Right ascension (J2000) | 18h 17m 05.9s |
| Declination (J2000) | −36° 18′ 05″ |
In the sky
Visible from the whole Southern Hemisphere and north to latitude 54° N. South of latitude 54° 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 255 million years.