Credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/Northwestern Univ./F. Yusef-Zadeh et al; Radio: NRF/SARAO/MeerKat; Image Processing: NASA/CXC/SAO/N. Wolk
Bending the Snake
Radio images of the core of our Milky Way galaxy reveal surprising structures: large arcs, extended nebula, emission near the Milky Way's supermassive black hole, Sgr A*, and long narrow radio filaments which can stretch for hundreds of light years. These strange radio filaments are produced by narrow lines of the Galaxy's magnetic field, and radio emission from these filaments is produced as electrons spiral around the magnetic lines of force. The image above shows one such feature in gray, a structure called G359.13, better known to scientists as the "Snake". A detailed examination shows that the Snake has a kink in it, where the radio emission suddenly changes direction. X-ray observations with the Chandra X-ray Observatory have finally answered this question. The Chandra X-ray observations, shown in blue in the image above, reveal a source of X-ray emission exactly at the point of the kink, as highlighted in the inset image. The X-ray and radio images of this source suggest it is a rapidly rotating, highly magnetized neutron star, or pulsar, which smashed through the Snake at speeds in excess of a million miles per hour, bending the filament's magnetic lines of force and forming the kink.
Published: May 5, 2025
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Page Author: Dr. Michael F. Corcoran
Last modified Monday, 12-May-2025 10:38:10 EDT