{"id":50855,"date":"2023-10-31T09:49:56","date_gmt":"2023-10-31T09:49:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/2db4c86f-0e8b-431d-8052-e5d39dac034a"},"modified":"2023-10-31T11:34:50","modified_gmt":"2023-10-31T11:34:50","slug":"ghostly-cosmic-skeleton-hand-captured-in-time-for-halloween","status":"publish","type":"rss_feed","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/rss_feed\/ghostly-cosmic-skeleton-hand-captured-in-time-for-halloween\/","title":{"rendered":"Ghostly cosmic ‘skeleton hand’ captured in time for Halloween"},"content":{"rendered":"

A new image of the etheral cosmic hand, pulsar wind nebula MSH 15-52. <\/p>

By Iain Todd\n <\/p>

Published: Tuesday, 31 October 2023 at 09:49 AM<\/p>

\n\n

Three of the world\u2019s most powerful observatories have combined their observing power to capture a ghostly \u2018hand\u2019 in space, just in time for Halloween.<\/p>

The hand is in fact a pulsar wind nebula known as MSH 15-52, which surrounds pulsar PSR B1509-58.<\/p>

Pulsars<\/a> are spinning neutron stars<\/a> that emit a pulse of energy in the direction of Earth, much like a lighthouse beacon.<\/p>

For more spooky cosmic images, have a look at NASA’s Halloween Sun<\/a>, the jack-o-lantern nebula<\/a>, a glowing cosmic eye<\/a> and ghostly galactic collision<\/a>.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>

A view of pulsar wind nebula MSH 15-52, famous for looking like a ghostly cosmic hand. Credit: X-ray: NASA\/CXC\/Stanford Univ.\/R. Romani et al. (Chandra); NASA\/MSFC (IXPE); Infrared: NASA\/JPL-Caltech\/DECaPS; Image Processing: NASA\/CXC\/SAO\/J. Schmidt<\/figcaption><\/figure>

Pulsar PSR B1509-58 is located at the base of the ghostly hand in this brand new image, captured by NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory and the Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer (IXPE), with infrared<\/a> data from the Dark Energy Camera Plane Survey (DECaPS2).<\/p>

The pulsar was first observed by Chandra in 2001, but this latest image of the target combines data from all three telescopes.<\/p>

Chandra data is seen in orange, green and blue; IXPE data is seen in diffuse purple and the Dark Energy Camera data is seen in red and blue.<\/p>

\"A
A view of pulsar wind nebula MSH 15-52 using only data from the Chandra X-ray Observatory. Credit: X-ray: NASA\/CXC\/Stanford Univ.\/R. Romani et al. (Chandra)<\/figcaption><\/figure>

Mapping MSH-15-52<\/strong>‘s magnetic field<\/strong><\/h2>

IXPE data has enabled astronomers to map the magnetic field<\/a> of the pulsar nebula for the first time.<\/p>

This shows the electric field orientation of X-rays, determined by the magnetic field of the X-ray source.<\/p>

In the magnetic field map seen below, short straight lines mark the direction of the local magnetic field.<\/p>

\"A
A view of pulsar wind nebula MSH 15-52. Lines show the mapping of the magnetic field. Credit: X-ray: NASA\/CXC\/Stanford Univ.\/R. Romani et al. (Chandra); NASA\/MSFC (IXPE); Infrared: NASA\/JPL-Caltech\/DECaPS; Image Processing: NASA\/CXC\/SAO\/J. Schmidt<\/figcaption><\/figure>

Orange bars show the most precise measurements; cyan and blue the least precise.<\/p>

The map actually accentuates the hand-like qualities of the ghostly nebula, producing a cosmic image fit for Halloween.<\/p>

You can read the full paper about this image release at arxiv.org\/abs\/2309.16067<\/a>.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>