NASA's X-Ray Telescopes Unveil A 'Cosmic Hand' Sculpted By A Dead Star
NASA's X-ray telescopes recently revealed the "bones" of a ghostly cosmic hand. A hand-shaped structure in space was captured by two of NASA's X-ray space telescopes. What appears hand-like to us is essentially what remains of a dead collapsed dead and all of its matter and antimatter.
Where did this hand come from?
This star ran out of nuclear fuel to burn about 1,500 years ago. After that, the star collapsed onto itself and created an extremely dense object scientists call a neutron star. Such stars create extreme conditions that are alien to Earth, including an intense wind called the "pulsar wind nebula."
Situated 16,000 light-years from Earth, the MSH 15-52 pulsar wind nebula is part of the PSR B1509-58 pulsar. At the base of the "palm" of the nebula is the pulsar. It was first observed by NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory in 2001. Now, NASA's latest X-ray telescope, the Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer (IXPE) has observed the MSH-15 52 for about 17 days - its longest look at any single object since December 2021.
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"The IXPE data gives us the first map of the magnetic field in the ‘hand’," said ?Roger Romani of Stanford University in California, who led the study. "The charged particles producing the X-rays travel along the magnetic field, determining the basic shape of the nebula, like the bones do in a person’s hand."
IXPE is able to provide information about the electric field orientation of X-rays that is determined by the magnetic field of the X-ray source, NASA explained, in a phenomenon called X-ray polarisation.
What did the scientists find?
"We’re all familiar with X-rays as a diagnostic medical tool for humans," said co-author Josephine Wong. "Here we’re using X-rays in a different way, but they are again revealing information that is otherwise hidden from us."
Scientists found that inside MSH 15-52, there is a bright X-ray jet that flows from the pulsar to the "wrist" at the bottom of the image. According to the new data, this means that the polarisation at the start of the jet is low, owing to the turbulent nature of the region.
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Their findings reveal that particles receive an energy boost in complex turbulent regions near the pulsar situated at the base of the palm. In addition, particles move towards areas where the magnetic field is more uniform - along the wrist, fingers, and the thumb.
The results from their findings were published in a new paper in The Astrophysical Journal.
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