Pulsar
PSR B1842-04 (J1845-0434)
Radio pulsar
A neutron star spinning once every 0.487 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 | 486.8 ms |
| Period derivative | 1.1×10⁻¹⁴ s/s |
| Characteristic age | 681 thousand years |
| Magnetic field | 2.4×10¹² G |
| Spin-down luminosity | 3.9×10³³ erg/s |
| Dispersion measure | 229.9 pc/cm³ |
| Distance | 4,092 pc (13.3 thousand ly) |
| Discovery | 1987 · jb2, htru_pks, misc, pksmb |
| Source | ATNF Pulsar Catalogue |
| Right ascension (J2000) | 18h 45m 34.7s |
| Declination (J2000) | −4° 34′ 30″ |
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 13 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 237 million years.