Pulsar
PSR J1907+0602
Young pulsar · in the remnant G40.5-0.5(?)
A neutron star spinning once every 0.107 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 | Aquila |
| Period | 106.6 ms |
| Period derivative | 8.7×10⁻¹⁴ s/s |
| Characteristic age | 20 thousand years |
| Magnetic field | 3.1×10¹² G |
| Spin-down luminosity | 2.8×10³⁶ erg/s |
| Dispersion measure | 82.1 pc/cm³ |
| Distance | 2,370 pc (7.7 thousand ly) |
| Location | in the remnant G40.5-0.5(?) |
| Discovery | 2009 · FermiBlind |
| Source | ATNF Pulsar Catalogue |
| Right ascension (J2000) | 19h 07m 54.7s |
| Declination (J2000) | +6° 02′ 17″ |
In the sky
Visible from the whole Northern Hemisphere and south to latitude 84° S. 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 7,730 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 137 million years.