Pulsar
PSR B2003-08 (J2006-0807)
Radio pulsar
A neutron star spinning once every 0.581 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 | 580.9 ms |
| Period derivative | 4.6×10⁻¹⁷ s/s |
| Characteristic age | 200 million years |
| Magnetic field | 1.7×10¹¹ G |
| Spin-down luminosity | 9.3×10³⁰ erg/s |
| Dispersion measure | 32.4 pc/cm³ |
| Distance | 2,000 pc (6.5 thousand ly) |
| Discovery | 1978 · mol2, misc, pkssw |
| Source | ATNF Pulsar Catalogue |
| Right ascension (J2000) | 20h 06m 16.4s |
| Declination (J2000) | −8° 07′ 02″ |
In the sky
Visible from the whole Southern Hemisphere and north to latitude 82° 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 6,523 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 116 million years.