Pulsar
PSR B1820-31 (J1823-3106)
Radio pulsar
A neutron star spinning once every 0.284 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 | 284.1 ms |
| Period derivative | 2.9×10⁻¹⁵ s/s |
| Characteristic age | 1.5 million years |
| Magnetic field | 9.2×10¹¹ G |
| Spin-down luminosity | 5.0×10³³ erg/s |
| Dispersion measure | 50.3 pc/cm³ |
| Distance | 1,586 pc (5.2 thousand ly) |
| Discovery | 1978 · mol2, htru_pks, misc, pks70, pkssw |
| Source | ATNF Pulsar Catalogue |
| Right ascension (J2000) | 18h 23m 46.8s |
| Declination (J2000) | −31° 06′ 50″ |
In the sky
Visible from the whole Southern Hemisphere and north to latitude 59° N. South of latitude 59° 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 5,173 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 92 million years.