Pulsar
PSR J2016+3711
Young pulsar · in the remnant G74.9+1.2(CTB87)
A neutron star spinning once every 0.051 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 | Cygnus |
| Period | 50.809 ms (20 Hz) |
| Period derivative | 7.2×10⁻¹⁴ s/s |
| Characteristic age | 11 thousand years |
| Magnetic field | 1.9×10¹² G |
| Spin-down luminosity | 2.2×10³⁷ erg/s |
| Dispersion measure | 428.0 pc/cm³ |
| Distance | 13,300 pc (43.4 thousand ly) |
| Location | in the remnant G74.9+1.2(CTB87) |
| Discovery | 2024 · misc |
| Source | ATNF Pulsar Catalogue |
| Right ascension (J2000) | 20h 16m 09.1s |
| Declination (J2000) | +37° 11′ 10″ |
In the sky
Visible from the whole Northern Hemisphere and south to latitude 53° S. North of latitude 53° 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 43 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 770 million years.