Pulsar
PSR B1842+14 (J1844+1454)
Radio pulsar
A neutron star spinning once every 0.375 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 | Hercules |
| Period | 375.5 ms |
| Period derivative | 1.9×10⁻¹⁵ s/s |
| Characteristic age | 3.2 million years |
| Magnetic field | 8.5×10¹¹ G |
| Spin-down luminosity | 1.4×10³³ erg/s |
| Dispersion measure | 41.5 pc/cm³ |
| Distance | 1,683 pc (5.5 thousand ly) |
| Discovery | 1978 · mol2, ar2, ar3, gb4, lotaas, misc, pkssw, fast_gpps |
| Source | ATNF Pulsar Catalogue |
| Right ascension (J2000) | 18h 44m 54.9s |
| Declination (J2000) | +14° 54′ 14″ |
In the sky
Visible from the whole Northern Hemisphere and south to latitude 75° S. North of latitude 75° N 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 5,489 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 97 million years.