NASA’s Chandra X-ray space observatory has allowed the observation of a runaway pulsar, which means that it belongs to the category of stars that move at speeds abnormally high compared to what surrounds them. This neutron star, known as IGR J11014-6103, is moving at a speed yet to be measured exactly between 4 and 8 million km/h (between 2.5 and 5 mph). Another extraordinary feature of this pulsar is the tail created by a jet of high-energy particles, which extends for some 37 light years.
The IGR J11014-6103 pulsar is about 30,000 light-years away from Earth in the constellation Carina. It was discovered by ESA’s space telescope INTEGRAL (International Gamma-Ray Astrophysics Laboratory). It’s moving from the center of the remnant of the supernova indicated as SNR MSH 11-61A it was born from at a truly extraordinary speed.
For this reason, the IGR J11014-6103 pulsar has already been the subject of observations from several space and ground-based telescopes. They were required to establish first of all that it was indeed a pulsar. This object outside the normal even for a neutron star wobbles like a spinning top and has a tail composed of high energy particles produced by a nebula that surrounds the pulsar.
Lucia Pavan of the University of Geneva, Switzerland, the main author of the article published in the journal “Astronomy and Astrophysics” about the IGR J11014-6103 pulsar, points out that this is the first object ever observed that moves so fast and at the same time produces a jet of gas.
The characteristics of the tail gave rise to a mystery to be explained. The nebula is nearly perpendicular to the direction of the jets that form the tail. This is strange because in general the direction of the motion of a pulsar, its jet, and the nebula that wraps it are aligned with each other.
One possible explanation is that the iron core of the star that exploded in a supernova has extremely rapid rotation. However, rotations so fast to explain this phenomenon aren’t expected to be reached. According to Gerd Puehlhofer, University of Tübingen, Germany, co-author of the article, we are faced with exotic physical phenomena that can occur after a stellar collapse.
For these reasons, this pulsar not only gives us a great show but it’s a very interesting source for the investigations of scientists in order to increase our knowledge about these exotic objects.
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