Pulsar
PSR B1906+09 (J1908+0916)
Radio pulsar
A neutron star spinning once every 0.830 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 | 830.3 ms |
| Period derivative | 8.4×10⁻¹⁷ s/s |
| Characteristic age | 156 million years |
| Magnetic field | 2.7×10¹¹ G |
| Spin-down luminosity | 5.8×10³⁰ erg/s |
| Dispersion measure | 250.4 pc/cm³ |
| Distance | 5,560 pc (18.1 thousand ly) |
| Discovery | 1975 · ar1, misc, palfa, pksmb |
| Source | ATNF Pulsar Catalogue |
| Right ascension (J2000) | 19h 08m 58.7s |
| Declination (J2000) | +9° 16′ 14″ |
In the sky
Visible from the whole Northern Hemisphere and south to latitude 81° 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 18 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 322 million years.