posted by Vern
on Mon Apr 6, 2009 05:12 pm MDT
Appearing somewhat like a giant blue hand with stretching fingers, this image taken by the Chandra Xray Observatory is a 46 parsec (150 light years) wide region surrounding pulsar PSR B1509-58 in the southern constellation Circinus. A thin jet, 6.1 parsecs long, extends to lower left and outlines a particle beam emanating from the south pole of the pulsar. The bright cloud extending above the fingers is gas left over from a super nova that is heated to millions of degrees Celsis by high energy particles emitted by the pulsar. The pulsar is spinning seven times each second and the energy released creates intriguing complex structures.
Image Credit: NASA/CXC/SAO/P.Slane, et al.