New Chandra Movie Features Neutron Star Action
chandra_531 January 7th, 2013
Credit: NASA/CXC/Univ of Toronto/M.Durant et al
This deep image from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory shows the Vela pulsar, a neutron star that was formed when a massive star collapsed. In the upper right is a fast moving jet of particles produced by the pulsar. The pulsar is about 1,000 light years from Earth, and makes over 11 complete rotations every second. As the pulsar spins, it spews out a jet of charged particles that race out along the pulsar's rotation axis at about 70% of the speed of light. A movie shows dramatic changes in the jet, suggesting that the pulsar may be slowly wobbling, or precessing, as it spins. If this evidence is confirmed, it would be the first time that a neutron star has been found to be precessing. In this image the jet's shape is blurred because images at different times have been added together.
Provider: Chandra X-ray Observatory
Image Source: http://chandra.harvard.edu/photo/2013/vela/
Curator: Chandra X-ray Observatory, Cambridge, MA, USA
Image Use Policy: http://chandra.harvard.edu/photo/image_use.html
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Image Details
Distance
Position Details
Color Mapping
- ID
- 531
- Subject Category
- B.3.1.9.1 B.4.1.4 B.4.1.5
- Subject Name
- Vela Pulsar Jet
- Credits
- NASA/CXC/Univ of Toronto/M.Durant et al
- Release Date
- 2013-01-07
- Lightyears
- 1,000
- Redshift
- 1,000
- Reference Url
- http://chandra.harvard.edu/photo/2013/vela/
- Type
- Observation
- Image Quality
- Good
- Distance Notes
- Facility
- Chandra
- Instrument
- ACIS
- Color Assignment
- Blue
- Band
- X-ray
- Bandpass
- X-ray
- Central Wavelength
- 0.8267
- Start Time
- Integration Time
- Dataset ID
- Notes
- Coordinate Frame
- ICRS
- Equinox
- J2000
- Reference Value
- 128.8231009, -45.1761390
- Reference Dimension
- 3600.0, 2890.0
- Reference Pixel
- 1801.0, 1446.0
- Scale
- 2.08255e-05, 2.0825533e-05
- Rotation
- -2.72
- Coordinate System Projection:
- TAN
- Quality
- Full
- FITS Header
- Notes
- WCS retrieved using CXCs PinpointWCS
- Creator (Curator)
- Chandra X-ray Observatory
- URL
- http://chandra.harvard.edu
- Name
- Chandra X-ray Observatory Center
- cxcpub@cfa.harvard.edu
- Telephone
- 617.496.7941
- Address
- 60 Garden St.
- City
- Cambridge
- State/Province
- MA
- Postal Code
- 02138
- Country
- USA
- Rights
- http://chandra.harvard.edu/photo/image_use.html
- Publisher
- Chandra X-ray Observatory Center
- Publisher ID
- chandra
- Resource ID
- vela.tif
- Resource URL
- http://chandra.harvard.edu/photo/2013/vela/vela.tif
- Related Resources
- Metadata Date
- 2013-01-08T13:29:10-05:00
- Metadata Version
- 1.2
Detailed color mapping information coming soon...
