Pulsar
PSR J0855-4644
Radio pulsar · in the remnant RX J0852.0-4622
A neutron star spinning once every 0.065 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 | Vela |
| Period | 64.686 ms (15 Hz) |
| Period derivative | 7.3×10⁻¹⁵ s/s |
| Characteristic age | 141 thousand years |
| Magnetic field | 6.9×10¹¹ G |
| Spin-down luminosity | 1.1×10³⁶ erg/s |
| Dispersion measure | 236.4 pc/cm³ |
| Distance | 5,638 pc (18.4 thousand ly) |
| Location | in the remnant RX J0852.0-4622 |
| Discovery | 2003 · pksmb, htru_pks |
| Source | ATNF Pulsar Catalogue |
| Right ascension (J2000) | 8h 55m 36.2s |
| Declination (J2000) | −46° 44′ 14″ |
In the sky
Visible from the whole Southern Hemisphere and north to latitude 43° N. South of latitude 43° S it never sets. It stands highest at midnight in February, the best time to observe it.
Through a telescope from Earth
Light's journey
The light you see tonight set out 18 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 326 million years.