Pulsar
PSR B1904+06 (J1906+0641)
Radio pulsar
A neutron star spinning once every 0.267 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 | 267.3 ms |
| Period derivative | 2.1×10⁻¹⁵ s/s |
| Characteristic age | 2.0 million years |
| Magnetic field | 7.7×10¹¹ G |
| Spin-down luminosity | 4.4×10³³ erg/s |
| Dispersion measure | 472.2 pc/cm³ |
| Distance | 7,000 pc (22.8 thousand ly) |
| Discovery | 1986 · jb2, ar4, misc, palfa, pksmb, fast_gpps |
| Source | ATNF Pulsar Catalogue |
| Right ascension (J2000) | 19h 06m 35.2s |
| Declination (J2000) | +6° 41′ 03″ |
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 23 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 405 million years.