Pulsar
PSR J1851-0108
Radio pulsar · binary system
A neutron star spinning once every 0.087 seconds; the beams from its magnetic poles sweep across Earth on every turn. It shares a 228 days orbit with a neutron star. Period, spin-down, distance and orbit come from the ATNF Pulsar Catalogue; the beam geometry is illustrative.
| Type | Pulsar |
|---|---|
| Constellation | Aquila |
| Period | 87.075 ms (11 Hz) |
| Period derivative | 2.8×10⁻¹⁹ s/s |
| Characteristic age | 5.0 billion years |
| Magnetic field | 5.0×10⁹ G |
| Spin-down luminosity | 1.6×10³¹ erg/s |
| Dispersion measure | 671.0 pc/cm³ |
| Distance | 6,135 pc (20.0 thousand ly) |
| Companion | neutron star (estimated), ~1.24 M☉ |
| Orbital period | 228 days |
| Eccentricity | 0.1332 |
| Discovery | 2026 · misc |
| Source | ATNF Pulsar Catalogue |
| Right ascension (J2000) | 18h 51m 11.4s |
| Declination (J2000) | −1° 08′ 10″ |
In the sky
Visible from the whole Southern Hemisphere and north to latitude 89° N. It stands highest at midnight in July, 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 355 million years.