Pulsar
PSR B1822+00 (J1825+0004)
Radio pulsar
A neutron star spinning once every 0.779 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 | 779.0 ms |
| Period derivative | 8.8×10⁻¹⁶ s/s |
| Characteristic age | 14 million years |
| Magnetic field | 8.4×10¹¹ G |
| Spin-down luminosity | 7.3×10³¹ erg/s |
| Dispersion measure | 56.6 pc/cm³ |
| Distance | 1,861 pc (6.1 thousand ly) |
| Discovery | 1985 · gb2, htru_pks, lotaas, misc, pks70, pkssw, fast_gpps |
| Source | ATNF Pulsar Catalogue |
| Right ascension (J2000) | 18h 25m 15.3s |
| Declination (J2000) | +0° 04′ 20″ |
In the sky
Visible from the whole Southern Hemisphere and north to latitude 90° 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 6,070 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 108 million years.