Pulsar
PSR J2022+3842
Young pulsar · in the remnant G76.9+1.0
A neutron star spinning once every 0.049 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 | 48.579 ms (21 Hz) |
| Period derivative | 8.6×10⁻¹⁴ s/s |
| Characteristic age | 8,940 years |
| Magnetic field | 2.1×10¹² G |
| Spin-down luminosity | 3.0×10³⁷ erg/s |
| Dispersion measure | 429.1 pc/cm³ |
| Distance | 10,000 pc (32.6 thousand ly) |
| Location | in the remnant G76.9+1.0 |
| Discovery | 2011 · misc, FermiBlind |
| Source | ATNF Pulsar Catalogue |
| Right ascension (J2000) | 20h 22m 21.7s |
| Declination (J2000) | +38° 42′ 15″ |
In the sky
Visible from the whole Northern Hemisphere and south to latitude 51° S. North of latitude 51° 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 33 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 579 million years.