Pulsar
PSR J1810-2005
Radio pulsar · binary system
A neutron star spinning once every 0.033 seconds; the beams from its magnetic poles sweep across Earth on every turn. It shares a 15.012 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 | Sagittarius |
| Period | 32.822 ms (30 Hz) |
| Period derivative | 1.5×10⁻¹⁹ s/s |
| Characteristic age | 3.5 billion years |
| Magnetic field | 2.2×10⁹ G |
| Spin-down luminosity | 1.6×10³² erg/s |
| Dispersion measure | 240.7 pc/cm³ |
| Distance | 3,513 pc (11.5 thousand ly) |
| Companion | helium white dwarf (estimated), ~0.33 M☉ |
| Orbital period | 15.012 days |
| Eccentricity | 0.000019 |
| Discovery | 2001 · pksmb, htru_pks |
| Source | ATNF Pulsar Catalogue |
| Right ascension (J2000) | 18h 10m 59.0s |
| Declination (J2000) | −20° 05′ 08″ |
In the sky
Visible from the whole Southern Hemisphere and north to latitude 70° N. South of latitude 70° S it never sets. 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 11 thousand 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 203 million years.