The Crab Nebula Pulsar Shrugs
Explanation:
How does a city-sized neutron star power the vast
Crab Nebula?
The expulsion of wisps of hot gas at high speeds appears
to be at least part of the answer.
Yesterday
time-lapse movies taken from both the
Chandra X-ray Observatory
and the
Hubble Space Telescope
were
released showing a wisp of gas moving
out at about half the speed of light.
Wisps like this likely result from tremendous
electric voltages created by the central pulsar, a rapidly rotating,
magnetized, central
neutron star.
The hot
plasma strikes existing gas, causing it glow in colors
across the
electromagnetic spectrum.
Pictured above is a composite image of the
center of the Crab Nebula
where red represents
radio emission, green represents
visible emission,
and blue represents
X-ray emission.
The dot at the very center is the hot
pulsar
spinning 30 times per second.
Authors & editors:
Robert Nemiroff
(MTU) &
Jerry Bonnell
(USRA)
NASA Web Site Statements, Warnings,
and Disclaimers
NASA Official: Jay Norris.
Specific
rights apply.
A service of:
LHEA at
NASA /
GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.
