Pulsar
PSR B1818-04 (J1820-0427)
Radio pulsar
A neutron star spinning once every 0.598 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 | Serpens |
| Period | 598.1 ms |
| Period derivative | 6.3×10⁻¹⁵ s/s |
| Characteristic age | 1.5 million years |
| Magnetic field | 2.0×10¹² G |
| Spin-down luminosity | 1.2×10³³ erg/s |
| Dispersion measure | 84.5 pc/cm³ |
| Distance | 2,700 pc (8.8 thousand ly) |
| Discovery | 1969 · mol1, gb2, gb3, htru_pks, jb1, lotaas, misc, mol2, pks70, pksmb, pkssw |
| Source | ATNF Pulsar Catalogue |
| Right ascension (J2000) | 18h 20m 52.6s |
| Declination (J2000) | −4° 27′ 38″ |
In the sky
Visible from the whole Southern Hemisphere and north to latitude 86° N. 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 8,806 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 156 million years.