Pulsar
PSR J1638-4713
Young pulsar · in the remnant Potoroo
A neutron star spinning once every 0.066 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 | Ara |
| Period | 65.740 ms (15 Hz) |
| Period derivative | 4.4×10⁻¹⁴ s/s |
| Characteristic age | 24 thousand years |
| Magnetic field | 1.7×10¹² G |
| Spin-down luminosity | 6.1×10³⁶ erg/s |
| Dispersion measure | 1,553.0 pc/cm³ |
| Distance | 7,614 pc (24.8 thousand ly) |
| Location | in the remnant Potoroo |
| Discovery | 2024 · misc |
| Source | ATNF Pulsar Catalogue |
| Right ascension (J2000) | 16h 38m 02.6s |
| Declination (J2000) | −47° 13′ 54″ |
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 May, the best time to observe it.
Through a telescope from Earth
Light's journey
The light you see tonight set out 25 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 441 million years.