Pulsar
PSR B1817-18 (J1820-1818)
Radio pulsar
A neutron star spinning once every 0.310 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 | 309.9 ms |
| Period derivative | 9.4×10⁻¹⁷ s/s |
| Characteristic age | 53 million years |
| Magnetic field | 1.7×10¹¹ G |
| Spin-down luminosity | 1.2×10³² erg/s |
| Dispersion measure | 436.4 pc/cm³ |
| Distance | 14,050 pc (45.8 thousand ly) |
| Discovery | 1992 · pks1, htru_pks, misc, pksmb |
| Source | ATNF Pulsar Catalogue |
| Right ascension (J2000) | 18h 20m 39.1s |
| Declination (J2000) | −18° 18′ 03″ |
In the sky
Visible from the whole Southern Hemisphere and north to latitude 72° N. South of latitude 72° 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 46 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 813 million years.