Pulsar
PSR J0045-7319
Radio pulsar · binary system
A neutron star spinning once every 0.926 seconds; the beams from its magnetic poles sweep across Earth on every turn. Not in the Milky Way but in the Small Magellanic Cloud. It shares a 51.170 days orbit with a neutron star. Period, spin-down, distance and orbit come from the ATNF Pulsar Catalogue; the beam geometry is illustrative.
| Type | Pulsar |
|---|---|
| Constellation | Tucana |
| Host galaxy | Small Magellanic Cloud |
| Period | 926.3 ms |
| Period derivative | 4.5×10⁻¹⁵ s/s |
| Characteristic age | 3.3 million years |
| Magnetic field | 2.1×10¹² G |
| Spin-down luminosity | 2.2×10³² erg/s |
| Dispersion measure | 104.6 pc/cm³ |
| Distance | 59,700 pc (194.7 thousand ly) |
| Companion | neutron star (estimated), ~5.27 M☉ |
| Orbital period | 51.170 days |
| Eccentricity | 0.8079 |
| Discovery | 1991 · misc |
| Source | ATNF Pulsar Catalogue |
| Right ascension (J2000) | 0h 45m 35.2s |
| Declination (J2000) | −73° 19′ 03″ |
In the sky
Visible from the whole Southern Hemisphere and north to latitude 17° N. South of latitude 17° S it never sets. It stands highest at midnight in September, the best time to observe it.
Through a telescope from Earth
Light's journey
The light you see tonight set out 195 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 3.5 billion years.