x-pert
04-09-2009, 08:57 AM
An interesting image taken by NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory shows a hand-shaped nebula coming out of a young, tiny but powerfully rotating pulsar called PSR B1509-58, or B1509 for short.
http://chandra.harvard.edu/photo/2009/b1509/b1509_420.jpg (http://chandra.harvard.edu/photo/2009/b1509/b1509.jpg)
Image courtesy: NASA/CXC/SAO/P.Slane, et al.
The dense pulsar is only about 12 miles (19 kilometers) in diameter, but has produced this hand-shaped nebula, made from x-ray radiation (light), which is about 150 light-years in length.
B1509 is also only about 1,700 years old and located about 17,000 light-years from Earth.
A pulsar is a rapidly spinning neutron star that has resulted from the death of a super-massive star by a fierce explosion called a supernova.
It is rotating once in about 7 seconds, a very fast spinning pulsar.
The supernova remnant (SNR), the burnt out star, is called MSH 15-52 (G 320.4-01.2). [ArXiv: “Chandra observations of PSR B1509-58 and Supernova Remnant G320.4-1.2 (http://arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0112003)”; and Astronomy & Astrophysics: “On the age of PSR B 1509-58 (http://www.aanda.org/index.php?option=article&access=standard&Itemid=129&url=/articles/aa/full/2001/28/aah2847/aah2847.right.html)”]
Because of its rapid rotation about its axis, it is spewing out a lot of energy into space. Some of this energy has been loosely formed into a “cosmic hand” of sorts.
Source: http://www.itwire.com/content/view/24321/1066/
Read more: http://chandra.harvard.edu/photo/2009/b1509/
http://chandra.harvard.edu/photo/2009/b1509/b1509_420.jpg (http://chandra.harvard.edu/photo/2009/b1509/b1509.jpg)
Image courtesy: NASA/CXC/SAO/P.Slane, et al.
The dense pulsar is only about 12 miles (19 kilometers) in diameter, but has produced this hand-shaped nebula, made from x-ray radiation (light), which is about 150 light-years in length.
B1509 is also only about 1,700 years old and located about 17,000 light-years from Earth.
A pulsar is a rapidly spinning neutron star that has resulted from the death of a super-massive star by a fierce explosion called a supernova.
It is rotating once in about 7 seconds, a very fast spinning pulsar.
The supernova remnant (SNR), the burnt out star, is called MSH 15-52 (G 320.4-01.2). [ArXiv: “Chandra observations of PSR B1509-58 and Supernova Remnant G320.4-1.2 (http://arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0112003)”; and Astronomy & Astrophysics: “On the age of PSR B 1509-58 (http://www.aanda.org/index.php?option=article&access=standard&Itemid=129&url=/articles/aa/full/2001/28/aah2847/aah2847.right.html)”]
Because of its rapid rotation about its axis, it is spewing out a lot of energy into space. Some of this energy has been loosely formed into a “cosmic hand” of sorts.
Source: http://www.itwire.com/content/view/24321/1066/
Read more: http://chandra.harvard.edu/photo/2009/b1509/