Pulsar
PSR B1859+07 (J1901+0716)
Radio pulsar
A neutron star spinning once every 0.644 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 | 644.0 ms |
| Period derivative | 2.3×10⁻¹⁵ s/s |
| Characteristic age | 4.5 million years |
| Magnetic field | 1.2×10¹² G |
| Spin-down luminosity | 3.4×10³² erg/s |
| Dispersion measure | 252.6 pc/cm³ |
| Distance | 3,400 pc (11.1 thousand ly) |
| Discovery | 1987 · jb2, misc, palfa, pksmb, fast_gpps |
| Source | ATNF Pulsar Catalogue |
| Right ascension (J2000) | 19h 01m 38.9s |
| Declination (J2000) | +7° 16′ 35″ |
In the sky
Visible from the whole Northern Hemisphere and south to latitude 83° 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 197 million years.