Pulsar
PSR J2016+1948
Radio pulsar · binary system
A neutron star spinning once every 0.065 seconds; the beams from its magnetic poles sweep across Earth on every turn. It shares a 635 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 | Sagitta |
| Period | 64.940 ms (15 Hz) |
| Period derivative | 4.0×10⁻¹⁹ s/s |
| Characteristic age | 2.6 billion years |
| Magnetic field | 5.2×10⁹ G |
| Spin-down luminosity | 5.8×10³¹ erg/s |
| Dispersion measure | 33.8 pc/cm³ |
| Distance | 2,161 pc (7.0 thousand ly) |
| Companion | helium white dwarf (estimated), ~0.34 M☉ |
| Orbital period | 635 days |
| Eccentricity | 0.0015 |
| Discovery | 2003 · misc, gbncc, lotaas, fast_gpps |
| Source | ATNF Pulsar Catalogue |
| Right ascension (J2000) | 20h 16m 57.4s |
| Declination (J2000) | +19° 47′ 52″ |
In the sky
Visible from the whole Northern Hemisphere and south to latitude 70° S. North of latitude 70° N it never sets. 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 7,048 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 125 million years.