chandra_419 February 26th, 2009
Credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/Penn State/G.Pavlov et al.; Optical: ESO/VLT/UCL/R.Mignani et al.; Illustration: NASA/CXC/M.Weiss.
The composite image shows X-ray data from the Chandra X-ray Observatory (purple) and optical emission from Very Large Telescope (red, green and blue.) The Chandra source in the center of the image is the ancient pulsar PSR J0108-1431, or J0108 for short. At an age of about 200 million years, this pulsar is the oldest isolated pulsar ever detected in X-rays. This pulsar is slowing down as it ages and converting some of the energy that is being lost into X-rays, more efficiently than for any other known pulsar.
Provider: Chandra X-ray Observatory
Image Source: http://chandra.harvard.edu/photo/2009/j0108/
Curator: Chandra X-ray Observatory, Cambridge, MA, USA
Image Use Policy: http://chandra.harvard.edu/photo/image_use.html
Detailed color mapping information coming soon...
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