Pulsar
PSR J1454-5846
Radio pulsar · binary system
A neutron star spinning once every 0.045 seconds; the beams from its magnetic poles sweep across Earth on every turn. It shares a 12.423 days orbit with a CO white dwarf. Period, spin-down, distance and orbit come from the ATNF Pulsar Catalogue; the beam geometry is illustrative.
| Type | Pulsar |
|---|---|
| Constellation | Circinus |
| Period | 45.249 ms (22 Hz) |
| Period derivative | 8.2×10⁻¹⁹ s/s |
| Characteristic age | 878 million years |
| Magnetic field | 6.2×10⁹ G |
| Spin-down luminosity | 3.5×10³² erg/s |
| Dispersion measure | 116.1 pc/cm³ |
| Distance | 2,988 pc (9.7 thousand ly) |
| Companion | CO white dwarf (estimated), ~1.05 M☉ |
| Orbital period | 12.423 days |
| Eccentricity | 0.0019 |
| Discovery | 2001 · pksmb, htru_pks |
| Source | ATNF Pulsar Catalogue |
| Right ascension (J2000) | 14h 54m 10.9s |
| Declination (J2000) | −58° 46′ 35″ |
In the sky
Visible from the whole Southern Hemisphere and north to latitude 31° N. South of latitude 31° S it never sets. It stands highest at midnight in May, the best time to observe it.
Through a telescope from Earth
Light's journey
The light you see tonight set out 9,746 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 173 million years.