Pulsar
PSR B1841-04 (J1844-0433)
Radio pulsar
A neutron star spinning once every 0.991 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 | 991.0 ms |
| Period derivative | 3.9×10⁻¹⁵ s/s |
| Characteristic age | 4.0 million years |
| Magnetic field | 2.0×10¹² G |
| Spin-down luminosity | 1.6×10³² erg/s |
| Dispersion measure | 123.2 pc/cm³ |
| Distance | 3,075 pc (10.0 thousand ly) |
| Discovery | 1987 · jb2, htru_pks, misc, pks70, pksmb |
| Source | ATNF Pulsar Catalogue |
| Right ascension (J2000) | 18h 44m 33.5s |
| Declination (J2000) | −4° 33′ 12″ |
In the sky
Visible from the whole Southern Hemisphere and north to latitude 85° 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 10 thousand 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 178 million years.