Pulsar
PSR B1848+13 (J1850+1335)
Radio pulsar
A neutron star spinning once every 0.346 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 | 345.6 ms |
| Period derivative | 1.5×10⁻¹⁵ s/s |
| Characteristic age | 3.7 million years |
| Magnetic field | 7.3×10¹¹ G |
| Spin-down luminosity | 1.4×10³³ erg/s |
| Dispersion measure | 60.1 pc/cm³ |
| Distance | 2,169 pc (7.1 thousand ly) |
| Discovery | 1985 · gb3, ar3, lotaas, misc, pksmb, pkssw, fast_gpps |
| Source | ATNF Pulsar Catalogue |
| Right ascension (J2000) | 18h 50m 35.5s |
| Declination (J2000) | +13° 35′ 59″ |
In the sky
Visible from the whole Northern Hemisphere and south to latitude 76° S. North of latitude 76° N it never sets. 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 7,074 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 125 million years.