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The Crab Nebula Pulsar Shrugs
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The Crab Nebula Pulsar Shrugs
Credit & Copyright: J. Hester (ASU), CXC, HST, NOAO, NSF, NASA
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.

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Based on Astronomy Picture Of the Day

Publications with keywords: Crab Nebula - pulsar - movie
Publications with words: Crab Nebula - pulsar - movie
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