Pulsar
PSR J1822-0848
Radio pulsar · binary system
A neutron star spinning once every 0.835 seconds; the beams from its magnetic poles sweep across Earth on every turn. It shares a 287 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 | Scutum |
| Period | 834.8 ms |
| Period derivative | 1.4×10⁻¹⁶ s/s |
| Characteristic age | 98 million years |
| Magnetic field | 3.4×10¹¹ G |
| Spin-down luminosity | 9.2×10³⁰ erg/s |
| Dispersion measure | 186.3 pc/cm³ |
| Distance | 3,826 pc (12.5 thousand ly) |
| Companion | helium white dwarf (estimated), ~0.38 M☉ |
| Orbital period | 287 days |
| Eccentricity | 0.0590 |
| Discovery | 2004 · pksmb, htru_pks |
| Source | ATNF Pulsar Catalogue |
| Right ascension (J2000) | 18h 22m 51.9s |
| Declination (J2000) | −8° 48′ 59″ |
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 12 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 221 million years.