Pulsar
PSR B1844-04 (J1847-0402)
Radio pulsar
A neutron star spinning once every 0.598 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 | 597.8 ms |
| Period derivative | 5.2×10⁻¹⁴ s/s |
| Characteristic age | 183 thousand years |
| Magnetic field | 5.6×10¹² G |
| Spin-down luminosity | 9.6×10³³ erg/s |
| Dispersion measure | 142.0 pc/cm³ |
| Distance | 3,410 pc (11.1 thousand ly) |
| Discovery | 1970 · jb1, gb3, htru_pks, jb2, misc, mol2, pks70, pksmb |
| Source | ATNF Pulsar Catalogue |
| Right ascension (J2000) | 18h 47m 22.8s |
| Declination (J2000) | −4° 02′ 14″ |
In the sky
Visible from the whole Southern Hemisphere and north to latitude 86° N. It stands highest at midnight in July, the best time to observe it.
Through a telescope from Earth
Light's journey
The light you see tonight set out 11 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 197 million years.