Pulsar
PSR B1900+05 (J1902+0556)
Radio pulsar
A neutron star spinning once every 0.747 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 | 746.6 ms |
| Period derivative | 1.3×10⁻¹⁴ s/s |
| Characteristic age | 919 thousand years |
| Magnetic field | 3.1×10¹² G |
| Spin-down luminosity | 1.2×10³³ erg/s |
| Dispersion measure | 177.5 pc/cm³ |
| Distance | 3,600 pc (11.7 thousand ly) |
| Discovery | 1974 · ar1, ar4, jb2, palfa, pksmb |
| Source | ATNF Pulsar Catalogue |
| Right ascension (J2000) | 19h 02m 42.6s |
| Declination (J2000) | +5° 56′ 26″ |
In the sky
Visible from the whole Northern Hemisphere and south to latitude 84° 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 12 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 208 million years.