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Keyword: igrj11046103

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  • Astronomy Picture of the Day -- The Long Jet of the Lighthouse Nebula

    02/20/2014 10:15:13 PM PST · by SunkenCiv · 5 replies
    NASA ^ | February 21, 2014 | (see photo credit)
    Explanation: The Lighthouse nebula was formed by the wind of a pulsar, a rapidly rotating, magnetized neutron star, as it speeds through the interstellar medium at over 1,000 kilometers per second. Some 23,000 light-years distant toward the southern constellation Carina, pulsar and wind nebula (cataloged as IGR J1104-6103) are indicated at the lower right in this remarkable image from the Chandra X-ray Observatory. Energetic particles generated by the pulsar are swept back into the wind's comet-like tail trailing up and to the left, along the direction of the pulsar's motion away from its parent supernova remnant. Both runaway pulsar and...