Pulsar
PSR B1821+05 (J1823+0550)
Radio pulsar
A neutron star spinning once every 0.753 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 | 752.9 ms |
| Period derivative | 2.3×10⁻¹⁶ s/s |
| Characteristic age | 53 million years |
| Magnetic field | 4.2×10¹¹ G |
| Spin-down luminosity | 2.1×10³¹ erg/s |
| Dispersion measure | 66.8 pc/cm³ |
| Distance | 2,000 pc (6.5 thousand ly) |
| Discovery | 1978 · mol2, ar4, gb3, gb4, lotaas, misc, pkssw, fast_gpps |
| Source | ATNF Pulsar Catalogue |
| Right ascension (J2000) | 18h 23m 31.0s |
| Declination (J2000) | +5° 50′ 24″ |
In the sky
Visible from the whole Northern Hemisphere and south to latitude 84° S. 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 6,523 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 116 million years.