Pulsar
PSR B1830-08 (J1833-0827)
Radio pulsar
A neutron star spinning once every 0.085 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 | Scutum |
| Period | 85.291 ms (12 Hz) |
| Period derivative | 9.2×10⁻¹⁵ s/s |
| Characteristic age | 147 thousand years |
| Magnetic field | 9.0×10¹¹ G |
| Spin-down luminosity | 5.8×10³⁵ erg/s |
| Dispersion measure | 409.8 pc/cm³ |
| Distance | 4,500 pc (14.7 thousand ly) |
| Discovery | 1986 · jb2, htru_pks, misc, pksmb |
| Source | ATNF Pulsar Catalogue |
| Right ascension (J2000) | 18h 33m 40.3s |
| Declination (J2000) | −8° 27′ 32″ |
In the sky
Visible from the whole Southern Hemisphere and north to latitude 82° 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 15 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 260 million years.