Pulsar
PSR J0538+2817
Radio pulsar · in the remnant S147
A neutron star spinning once every 0.143 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 | Taurus |
| Period | 143.2 ms |
| Period derivative | 3.7×10⁻¹⁵ s/s |
| Characteristic age | 618 thousand years |
| Magnetic field | 7.3×10¹¹ G |
| Spin-down luminosity | 4.9×10³⁴ erg/s |
| Dispersion measure | 39.6 pc/cm³ |
| Distance | 1,300 pc (4.2 thousand ly) |
| Location | in the remnant S147 |
| Discovery | 1995 · ar4, ar327, gb4, lotaas, fast_gpps |
| Source | ATNF Pulsar Catalogue |
| Right ascension (J2000) | 5h 38m 25.1s |
| Declination (J2000) | +28° 17′ 09″ |
In the sky
Visible from the whole Northern Hemisphere and south to latitude 62° S. North of latitude 62° N it never sets. It stands highest at midnight in December, the best time to observe it.
Through a telescope from Earth
Light's journey
The light you see tonight set out 4,240 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 75 million years.