Pulsar
PSR B1942-00 (J1945-0040)
Radio pulsar
A neutron star spinning once every 1.05 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 | 1.046 s |
| Period derivative | 5.3×10⁻¹⁶ s/s |
| Characteristic age | 31 million years |
| Magnetic field | 7.6×10¹¹ G |
| Spin-down luminosity | 1.8×10³¹ erg/s |
| Dispersion measure | 59.1 pc/cm³ |
| Distance | 3,119 pc (10.2 thousand ly) |
| Discovery | 1978 · mol2, gb2, gbncc, lotaas, misc, pks70, pkssw |
| Source | ATNF Pulsar Catalogue |
| Right ascension (J2000) | 19h 45m 28.4s |
| Declination (J2000) | −0° 40′ 58″ |
In the sky
Visible from the whole Southern Hemisphere and north to latitude 89° N. 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 180 million years.