Pulsar
PSR J1232-6501
Radio pulsar · binary system
A neutron star spinning once every 0.088 seconds; the beams from its magnetic poles sweep across Earth on every turn. It shares a 1.863 days orbit with a helium white dwarf. Period, spin-down, distance and orbit come from the ATNF Pulsar Catalogue; the beam geometry is illustrative.
| Type | Pulsar |
|---|---|
| Constellation | Musca |
| Period | 88.282 ms (11 Hz) |
| Period derivative | 8.1×10⁻¹⁹ s/s |
| Characteristic age | 1.7 billion years |
| Magnetic field | 8.6×10⁹ G |
| Spin-down luminosity | 4.7×10³¹ erg/s |
| Dispersion measure | 239.4 pc/cm³ |
| Distance | 5,423 pc (17.7 thousand ly) |
| Companion | helium white dwarf (estimated), ~0.17 M☉ |
| Orbital period | 1.863 days |
| Eccentricity | 0.000110 |
| Discovery | 2001 · pksmb, htru_pks |
| Source | ATNF Pulsar Catalogue |
| Right ascension (J2000) | 12h 32m 17.8s |
| Declination (J2000) | −65° 01′ 03″ |
In the sky
Visible from the whole Southern Hemisphere and north to latitude 25° N. South of latitude 25° S it never sets. It stands highest at midnight in March, 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 314 million years.