Pulsar
PSR J0205+6449
Young pulsar · in the remnant 3C58
A neutron star spinning once every 0.066 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 | Cassiopeia |
| Period | 65.716 ms (15 Hz) |
| Period derivative | 1.9×10⁻¹³ s/s |
| Characteristic age | 5,370 years |
| Magnetic field | 3.6×10¹² G |
| Spin-down luminosity | 2.7×10³⁷ erg/s |
| Dispersion measure | 140.7 pc/cm³ |
| Distance | 3,200 pc (10.4 thousand ly) |
| Location | in the remnant 3C58 |
| Discovery | 2002 · misc, FermiBlind |
| Source | ATNF Pulsar Catalogue |
| Right ascension (J2000) | 2h 05m 37.9s |
| Declination (J2000) | +64° 49′ 41″ |
In the sky
Visible from the whole Northern Hemisphere and south to latitude 25° S. North of latitude 25° N 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 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 185 million years.