Pulsar
PSR J1801-0857G
Radio pulsar · in the globular cluster NGC6517
A neutron star spinning once every 0.052 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 | Ophiuchus |
| Period | 51.591 ms (19 Hz) |
| Period derivative | 1.1×10⁻¹⁹ s/s |
| Characteristic age | 7.7 billion years |
| Magnetic field | 2.4×10⁹ G |
| Spin-down luminosity | 3.1×10³¹ erg/s |
| Dispersion measure | 185.1 pc/cm³ |
| Distance | 9,200 pc (30.0 thousand ly) |
| Location | in the globular cluster NGC6517 |
| Discovery | 2021 · fast_crafts |
| Source | ATNF Pulsar Catalogue |
| Right ascension (J2000) | 18h 01m 50.1s |
| Declination (J2000) | −8° 57′ 27″ |
In the sky
Visible from the whole Southern Hemisphere and north to latitude 81° N. It stands highest at midnight in June, the best time to observe it.
Through a telescope from Earth
Light's journey
The light you see tonight set out 30 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 532 million years.