Pulsar
PSR B1831-03 (J1833-0338)
Radio pulsar
A neutron star spinning once every 0.687 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 | 686.7 ms |
| Period derivative | 4.2×10⁻¹⁴ s/s |
| Characteristic age | 262 thousand years |
| Magnetic field | 5.4×10¹² G |
| Spin-down luminosity | 5.1×10³³ erg/s |
| Dispersion measure | 234.4 pc/cm³ |
| Distance | 2,300 pc (7.5 thousand ly) |
| Discovery | 1972 · jb1, gb3, htru_pks, misc, mol2, pks70, pksmb |
| Source | ATNF Pulsar Catalogue |
| Right ascension (J2000) | 18h 33m 41.9s |
| Declination (J2000) | −3° 39′ 04″ |
In the sky
Visible from the whole Southern Hemisphere and north to latitude 86° 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 7,502 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 133 million years.