Pulsar
PSR B1903+07 (J1905+0709)
Radio pulsar
A neutron star spinning once every 0.648 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 | 648.0 ms |
| Period derivative | 4.9×10⁻¹⁵ s/s |
| Characteristic age | 2.1 million years |
| Magnetic field | 1.8×10¹² G |
| Spin-down luminosity | 7.2×10³² erg/s |
| Dispersion measure | 244.3 pc/cm³ |
| Distance | 4,969 pc (16.2 thousand ly) |
| Discovery | 1986 · jb2, misc, palfa, pksmb, fast_gpps |
| Source | ATNF Pulsar Catalogue |
| Right ascension (J2000) | 19h 05m 53.6s |
| Declination (J2000) | +7° 09′ 19″ |
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 16 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 287 million years.