Pulsar
PSR J0100-7211
Magnetar · in the remnant MCSNR J0100-7211
A magnetar with a 3.9×10¹⁴ gauss magnetic field: it spins slowly, but its magnetic energy escapes in X-ray and gamma-ray bursts. Not in the Milky Way but in the Small Magellanic Cloud. 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 | 8.020 s |
| Period derivative | 1.9×10⁻¹¹ s/s |
| Characteristic age | 6,760 years |
| Magnetic field | 3.9×10¹⁴ G |
| Spin-down luminosity | 1.4×10³³ erg/s |
| Distance | 59,700 pc (194.7 thousand ly) |
| Location | in the remnant MCSNR J0100-7211 |
| Discovery | 2002 · misc |
| Source | ATNF Pulsar Catalogue |
| Right ascension (J2000) | 1h 00m 43.0s |
| Declination (J2000) | −72° 11′ 34″ |
In the sky
Visible from the whole Southern Hemisphere and north to latitude 18° N. South of latitude 18° S it never sets. It stands highest at midnight in October, 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.