Pulsar
PSR J1437-5959
Radio pulsar · in the remnant G315.9-0.0
A neutron star spinning once every 0.062 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 | Centaurus |
| Period | 61.696 ms (16 Hz) |
| Period derivative | 8.6×10⁻¹⁵ s/s |
| Characteristic age | 114 thousand years |
| Magnetic field | 7.4×10¹¹ G |
| Spin-down luminosity | 1.4×10³⁶ erg/s |
| Dispersion measure | 549.6 pc/cm³ |
| Distance | 8,543 pc (27.9 thousand ly) |
| Location | in the remnant G315.9-0.0 |
| Discovery | 2009 · misc |
| Source | ATNF Pulsar Catalogue |
| Right ascension (J2000) | 14h 37m 01.9s |
| Declination (J2000) | −59° 59′ 01″ |
In the sky
Visible from the whole Southern Hemisphere and north to latitude 30° N. South of latitude 30° S it never sets. It stands highest at midnight in April, the best time to observe it.
Through a telescope from Earth
Light's journey
The light you see tonight set out 28 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 494 million years.