Hand-shaped nebula reaches for the stars
NASA’s Chandra X-ray observatory recently snapped the image of this unusual hand-shaped nebula.
The by-product of a star gone supernova, its energetic particles span 150 light-years.
This is big considering their source (a pulsar) spans a mere 19.3 km. The particles have had such wide reach because the pulsar spins incredibly fast: seven complete rotations every second.
The particles that form the fingers appear to be transferring energy to a nearby gas cloud (the part that glows orange and red on the image).
Dubbed B1509, the pulsar is believed to be 1,700 years old. It’s about 17,000 light-years from Earth.
