"Hand of God" in the Milky Way Galaxy: The mystery deepens
One of the most striking celestial objects in the Milky Way Galaxy, the colorful nebula known as the "Hand of God," has come to the fore again with new research.
Scientists say this structure, consisting of a rapidly rotating dead star core, is one of the galaxy's most powerful electromagnetic generators.
At the center of the nebula lies a pulsar. Pulsars are neutron stars left behind by massive stars exploding in supernovas. These objects, like lighthouses, emit streams of high-energy particles into space.
The mystery deepenedThis nebula, named MSH 15-52, imaged 15 years ago by NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory, was re-examined using radio data from the Australia Telescope Compact Array.
However, when combining X-ray and radio waves, some details appeared to overlap across different wavelengths of light, indicating that how the pulsar wind interacts with supernova remnants is still poorly understood.
Researchers believe these studies could also help understand how cosmic rays are formed.
Scientists haven't been able to explain why the radio flare, in particular, spreads much wider than expected. Experts say more sophisticated computer simulations are needed to solve this mystery.
30 MILLION TIMES THE STRONGEST MAGNETAt approximately 1,700 years old, MSH 15-52 is one of the youngest known pulsar wind nebulas.
Located 17,000 light-years away in the constellation Circinus, the structure, with its size spanning 150 light-years, dwarfs even the famous Crab Nebula. Its peculiar shape has earned it the nickname "The Hand of the Cosmos" or "The Hand of God."
The pulsar at the center is only 20 kilometers across. Despite its tiny size, it's incredibly powerful: it spins seven times a second and has a magnetic field about 30 million times stronger than the strongest magnet ever made on Earth.
NEW FASCINATING IMAGEThe new observations also produced a striking image of the nebula, where gold represents hydrogen gas, red represents radio waves, and blue, orange, and yellow represent X-rays.
The purple "fingers" seen where radio and X-rays intersect are caused by high-energy particles ejected from the pulsar moving along the magnetic field in the shock wave.
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