NASA has released a stunning new image of what appears to be a colossal “cosmic hand” stretching across 150 light-years of space, shaped by one of the galaxy's most powerful electromagnetic engines.
The image builds on earlier observations, first made in 2009, when NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory captured the unusual formation. At the time, astronomers spotted a pulsar and its surrounding nebula shaped remarkably like a “human hand”. Since then, scientists have continued to track the object using Chandra and other telescopes, said NASA.
In a post on X (formerly Twitter), NASA said, “New radio data has been combined with NASA's @chandraxray data to provide a fresh view of an exploded star and its surrounding nebula, helping astronomers better understand this ‘cosmic hand's peculiar properties and shape.”
The latest image combines Chandra's X-ray data with new radio observations from the Australia Telescope Compact Array (ATCA), revealing never-before-seen details of this exploded star and its environment. The result is a fresh look at its unusual properties and intricate structure.
At the centre of the image lies pulsar B1509-58, a rapidly rotating neutron star measuring just about 12 miles (19.31 kilometres) in diameter. Despite its small size, the pulsar generates a spectacular nebula, MSH 15-52, which stretches more than 150 light-years, said NASA. The nebula, created by streams of high-energy particles, resembles a hand with an extended palm and fingers pointing to the upper right in X-ray light.
It rotates nearly seven times each second and possesses a magnetic field about 15 trillion times stronger than Earth's. This combination of speed and magnetism makes B1509-58 “one of the most powerful electromagnetic generators in the Galaxy,” said NASA.
A pulsar is a type of neutron star, or the dense remnant left behind when a massive star explodes in a supernova, according to a report in The New York Post. A nebula, meanwhile, is a vast cloud of gas and dust.
The radio data from ATCA uncovered intricate filaments aligned with the nebula's magnetic field. These are thought to form as the pulsar's particle winds crash into the expanding debris of the original explosion.
Interestingly, the combined data highlight striking contrasts between X-ray and radio emissions. “Some prominent X-ray features, including the jet towards the bottom of the image and the inner parts of the three ‘fingers' towards the top, are not detected in radio waves,” said NASA, adding, “This suggests that highly energetic particles are leaking out from a shock wave — similar to a supersonic plane's sonic boom — near the pulsar and moving along magnetic field lines to create the fingers.”
The observations also provide fresh insights into RCW 89, the nearby supernova remnant. NASA said RCW 89's structure is unlike that of most young remnants, with patchy radio emissions that closely overlap with clusters of X-ray and optical light.
