Pulsar
PSR B1826-17 (J1829-1751)
Radio pulsar
A neutron star spinning once every 0.307 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 | 307.1 ms |
| Period derivative | 5.6×10⁻¹⁵ s/s |
| Characteristic age | 877 thousand years |
| Magnetic field | 1.3×10¹² G |
| Spin-down luminosity | 7.6×10³³ erg/s |
| Dispersion measure | 216.8 pc/cm³ |
| Distance | 5,937 pc (19.4 thousand ly) |
| Discovery | 1972 · jb1, gb3, htru_pks, misc, mol2, pks1, pks70, pksmb |
| Source | ATNF Pulsar Catalogue |
| Right ascension (J2000) | 18h 29m 43.1s |
| Declination (J2000) | −17° 51′ 04″ |
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 19 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 344 million years.