Pulsar
PSR J1837-0822
Radio pulsar · binary system
A neutron star spinning once every 1.10 seconds; the beams from its magnetic poles sweep across Earth on every turn. It shares a 98.364 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 | 1.099 s |
| Period derivative | 1.2×10⁻¹⁶ s/s |
| Characteristic age | 144 million years |
| Magnetic field | 3.7×10¹¹ G |
| Spin-down luminosity | 3.6×10³⁰ erg/s |
| Dispersion measure | 506.0 pc/cm³ |
| Distance | 5,239 pc (17.1 thousand ly) |
| Companion | helium white dwarf (estimated), ~0.32 M☉ |
| Orbital period | 98.364 days |
| Eccentricity | 0.0243 |
| Discovery | 2012 · htru_pks |
| Source | ATNF Pulsar Catalogue |
| Right ascension (J2000) | 18h 37m 39.6s |
| Declination (J2000) | −8° 22′ 12″ |
In the sky
Visible from the whole Southern Hemisphere and north to latitude 82° 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 17 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 303 million years.