File:B1509-58- Chandra Examines A Quadrillion-volt Pulsar (A neutron star located about 19,000 light years away in the constellation Circinus.) (2941479504).jpg

Description: Chandra's image of the rapidly spinning neutron star, or pulsar, B1509-58 shows a central bright source surrounded by an extremely energetic and complex nebula. The blue and purple colors in the nebula indicate X-rays emitted by high-energy particles of matter and anti-matter produced by the quadrillion volt environment around the pulsar. In the lower left of the image, a thin jet almost 20 light years in length traces a beam of particles being shot out from the pulsar's south pole at more than 130 million miles per hour. The small arc just above the pulsar marks a shock wave produced by particles flowing away from the pulsar's equator.

Creator/Photographer: Chandra X-ray Observatory

NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory, which was launched and deployed by Space Shuttle Columbia on July 23, 1999, is the most sophisticated X-ray observatory built to date. The mirrors on Chandra are the largest, most precisely shaped and aligned, and smoothest mirrors ever constructed. Chandra is helping scientists better understand the hot, turbulent regions of space and answer fundamental questions about origin, evolution, and destiny of the Universe. The images Chandra makes are twenty-five times sharper than the best previous X-ray telescope. NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., manages the Chandra program for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. The Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory controls Chandra science and flight operations from the Chandra X-ray Center in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Medium: Chandra telescope x-ray

Date: 2001

Persistent URL: chandra.harvard.edu/photo/2001/1175/

Repository: Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory

Gift line: NASA/CXC/MIT/B.Gaensler et al.