Pulsar
PSR B1907+10 (J1909+1102)
Radio pulsar
A neutron star spinning once every 0.284 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 | 283.6 ms |
| Period derivative | 2.6×10⁻¹⁵ s/s |
| Characteristic age | 1.7 million years |
| Magnetic field | 8.8×10¹¹ G |
| Spin-down luminosity | 4.6×10³³ erg/s |
| Dispersion measure | 149.8 pc/cm³ |
| Distance | 4,800 pc (15.7 thousand ly) |
| Discovery | 1973 · jb1, ar1, ar3, ar327, ar4, gb3, gb4, jb2, lotaas, misc, mol2, palfa, pksmb, fast_gpps |
| Source | ATNF Pulsar Catalogue |
| Right ascension (J2000) | 19h 09m 48.7s |
| Declination (J2000) | +11° 02′ 03″ |
In the sky
Visible from the whole Northern Hemisphere and south to latitude 79° S. North of latitude 79° N it never sets. 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 278 million years.