Pulsar
PSR B1914+09 (J1916+0951)
Radio pulsar
A neutron star spinning once every 0.270 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 | 270.3 ms |
| Period derivative | 2.5×10⁻¹⁵ s/s |
| Characteristic age | 1.7 million years |
| Magnetic field | 8.4×10¹¹ G |
| Spin-down luminosity | 5.0×10³³ erg/s |
| Dispersion measure | 60.9 pc/cm³ |
| Distance | 1,903 pc (6.2 thousand ly) |
| Discovery | 1974 · ar1, ar2, ar3, gb3, jb2, lotaas, misc, mol2, palfa, pksmb, fast_gpps |
| Source | ATNF Pulsar Catalogue |
| Right ascension (J2000) | 19h 16m 32.4s |
| Declination (J2000) | +9° 51′ 26″ |
In the sky
Visible from the whole Northern Hemisphere and south to latitude 80° 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 6,207 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 110 million years.