Pulsar
PSR B1900-06 (J1903-0632)
Radio pulsar
A neutron star spinning once every 0.432 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 | 431.9 ms |
| Period derivative | 3.4×10⁻¹⁵ s/s |
| Characteristic age | 2.0 million years |
| Magnetic field | 1.2×10¹² G |
| Spin-down luminosity | 1.7×10³³ erg/s |
| Dispersion measure | 195.6 pc/cm³ |
| Distance | 12,450 pc (40.6 thousand ly) |
| Discovery | 1972 · jb1, htru_pks, mol2, pks70, pkssw |
| Source | ATNF Pulsar Catalogue |
| Right ascension (J2000) | 19h 03m 37.9s |
| Declination (J2000) | −6° 32′ 21″ |
In the sky
Visible from the whole Southern Hemisphere and north to latitude 83° 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 41 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 720 million years.