Pulsar
PSR B1859+03 (J1901+0331)
Radio pulsar
A neutron star spinning once every 0.655 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 | 655.5 ms |
| Period derivative | 7.5×10⁻¹⁵ s/s |
| Characteristic age | 1.4 million years |
| Magnetic field | 2.2×10¹² G |
| Spin-down luminosity | 1.0×10³³ erg/s |
| Dispersion measure | 401.2 pc/cm³ |
| Distance | 7,000 pc (22.8 thousand ly) |
| Discovery | 1970 · jb1, ar1, gb3, jb2, misc, mol2, palfa, pksmb, fast_gpps |
| Source | ATNF Pulsar Catalogue |
| Right ascension (J2000) | 19h 01m 31.8s |
| Declination (J2000) | +3° 31′ 06″ |
In the sky
Visible from the whole Northern Hemisphere and south to latitude 86° 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 23 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 405 million years.