Saturday, October 9, 2010

Really Heart Breaking !!! Aftermath of a Supernova

  • 327 is the aftermath of a star that exploded as a supernova.
  • In the composite, X-rays are blue, radio data are red and yellow, and infrared data show the stars in the field.
  • A rapidly spinning neutron star left behind is producing the wind of relativistic particles seen in X-rays.

G327.1-1.1 is the aftermath of a massive star that exploded as a supernova in the Milky Way galaxy. A highly magnetic, rapidly spinning neutron star called a pulsar was left behind after the explosion and is producing a wind of relativistic particles, seen in X-rays by Chandra and XMM-Newton (blue) as well as in the radio data (red and yellow). This structure is called a pulsar wind nebula. The likely location of the spinning neutron star is shown in the labeled version. The large red circle shows radio emission from the blast wave, and the composite image also contains infrared data from the 2MASS survey (red, green, and blue) that show the stars in the field.

Read  More about this by clicking below:

G327.1-1.1: Pushing the Envelope