Pulsar
PSR B1900+01 (J1903+0135)
Radio pulsar
A neutron star spinning once every 0.729 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 | 729.3 ms |
| Period derivative | 4.0×10⁻¹⁵ s/s |
| Characteristic age | 2.9 million years |
| Magnetic field | 1.7×10¹² G |
| Spin-down luminosity | 4.1×10³² erg/s |
| Dispersion measure | 244.9 pc/cm³ |
| Distance | 3,300 pc (10.8 thousand ly) |
| Discovery | 1973 · jb1, gb4, misc, mol2, palfa, pksmb, fast_gpps |
| Source | ATNF Pulsar Catalogue |
| Right ascension (J2000) | 19h 03m 30.0s |
| Declination (J2000) | +1° 35′ 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 191 million years.