Pulsar
PSR B1937-26 (J1941-2602)
Radio pulsar
A neutron star spinning once every 0.403 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 | Sagittarius |
| Period | 402.9 ms |
| Period derivative | 9.6×10⁻¹⁶ s/s |
| Characteristic age | 6.7 million years |
| Magnetic field | 6.3×10¹¹ G |
| Spin-down luminosity | 5.8×10³² erg/s |
| Dispersion measure | 50.1 pc/cm³ |
| Distance | 3,571 pc (11.6 thousand ly) |
| Discovery | 1978 · mol2, misc, pks70, pkssw |
| Source | ATNF Pulsar Catalogue |
| Right ascension (J2000) | 19h 41m 00.4s |
| Declination (J2000) | −26° 02′ 06″ |
In the sky
Visible from the whole Southern Hemisphere and north to latitude 64° N. South of latitude 64° S 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 12 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 207 million years.