Pulsar
PSR B1859+01 (J1901+0156)
Radio pulsar
A neutron star spinning once every 0.288 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 | Aquila |
| Period | 288.2 ms |
| Period derivative | 2.4×10⁻¹⁵ s/s |
| Characteristic age | 1.9 million years |
| Magnetic field | 8.3×10¹¹ G |
| Spin-down luminosity | 3.9×10³³ erg/s |
| Dispersion measure | 105.4 pc/cm³ |
| Distance | 3,229 pc (10.5 thousand ly) |
| Discovery | 1985 · gb3, ar327, lotaas, misc, palfa, pksmb, fast_gpps |
| Source | ATNF Pulsar Catalogue |
| Right ascension (J2000) | 19h 01m 34.3s |
| Declination (J2000) | +1° 56′ 38″ |
In the sky
Visible from the whole Northern Hemisphere and south to latitude 88° S. 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 187 million years.