Pulsar
PSR J1813-1749
Young pulsar · in the remnant 12.8-0.0
A neutron star spinning once every 0.045 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 | Sagittarius |
| Period | 44.741 ms (22 Hz) |
| Period derivative | 1.3×10⁻¹³ s/s |
| Characteristic age | 5,580 years |
| Magnetic field | 2.4×10¹² G |
| Spin-down luminosity | 5.6×10³⁷ erg/s |
| Dispersion measure | 1,087.0 pc/cm³ |
| Distance | 6,147 pc (20.0 thousand ly) |
| Location | in the remnant 12.8-0.0 |
| Discovery | 2009 · misc |
| Source | ATNF Pulsar Catalogue |
| Right ascension (J2000) | 18h 13m 35.2s |
| Declination (J2000) | −17° 49′ 57″ |
In the sky
Visible from the whole Southern Hemisphere and north to latitude 72° N. South of latitude 72° 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 20 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 356 million years.