Pulsar
PSR B1911+11 (J1914+1122)
Radio pulsar
A neutron star spinning once every 0.601 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 | 601.0 ms |
| Period derivative | 6.5×10⁻¹⁶ s/s |
| Characteristic age | 15 million years |
| Magnetic field | 6.3×10¹¹ G |
| Spin-down luminosity | 1.2×10³² erg/s |
| Dispersion measure | 100.4 pc/cm³ |
| Distance | 3,151 pc (10.3 thousand ly) |
| Discovery | 1975 · ar1, ar4, misc, palfa, pksmb, fast_gpps |
| Source | ATNF Pulsar Catalogue |
| Right ascension (J2000) | 19h 14m 10.1s |
| Declination (J2000) | +11° 22′ 04″ |
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 10 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 182 million years.