Pulsar
PSR B1946+35 (J1948+3540)
Radio pulsar
A neutron star spinning once every 0.717 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 | Cygnus |
| Period | 717.3 ms |
| Period derivative | 7.1×10⁻¹⁵ s/s |
| Characteristic age | 1.6 million years |
| Magnetic field | 2.3×10¹² G |
| Spin-down luminosity | 7.6×10³² erg/s |
| Dispersion measure | 129.4 pc/cm³ |
| Distance | 7,651 pc (25.0 thousand ly) |
| Discovery | 1970 · jb1, ar327, ar4, gb1, gb2, gb4, gbncc, lotaas, fast_gpps |
| Source | ATNF Pulsar Catalogue |
| Right ascension (J2000) | 19h 48m 25.0s |
| Declination (J2000) | +35° 40′ 11″ |
In the sky
Visible from the whole Northern Hemisphere and south to latitude 54° S. North of latitude 54° 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 25 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 443 million years.