Pulsar
PSR B1913+10 (J1915+1009)
Radio pulsar
A neutron star spinning once every 0.405 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 | 404.6 ms |
| Period derivative | 1.5×10⁻¹⁴ s/s |
| Characteristic age | 420 thousand years |
| Magnetic field | 2.5×10¹² G |
| Spin-down luminosity | 9.1×10³³ erg/s |
| Dispersion measure | 241.6 pc/cm³ |
| Distance | 7,000 pc (22.8 thousand ly) |
| Discovery | 1975 · ar1, ar2, ar3, jb2, misc, palfa, pksmb |
| Source | ATNF Pulsar Catalogue |
| Right ascension (J2000) | 19h 15m 30.0s |
| Declination (J2000) | +10° 09′ 44″ |
In the sky
Visible from the whole Northern Hemisphere and south to latitude 80° S. North of latitude 80° 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 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.