Pulsar
PSR B1918+19 (J1921+1948)
Radio pulsar
A neutron star spinning once every 0.821 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 | Vulpecula |
| Period | 821.0 ms |
| Period derivative | 9.0×10⁻¹⁶ s/s |
| Characteristic age | 15 million years |
| Magnetic field | 8.7×10¹¹ G |
| Spin-down luminosity | 6.4×10³¹ erg/s |
| Dispersion measure | 153.9 pc/cm³ |
| Distance | 4,322 pc (14.1 thousand ly) |
| Discovery | 1973 · jb1, ar1, ar2, ar3, gb3, gb4, lotaas, misc, mol2, fast_gpps |
| Source | ATNF Pulsar Catalogue |
| Right ascension (J2000) | 19h 21m 03.8s |
| Declination (J2000) | +19° 48′ 45″ |
In the sky
Visible from the whole Northern Hemisphere and south to latitude 70° S. North of latitude 70° 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 14 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 250 million years.