The Swift detection caught astronomers' attention
NASA shared a mesmerising image of a supernova captured by the Chandra X-ray Observatory telescope. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration shared the picture on its Instagram page which shows the rotating neutron stars, ever detected in 2016. It exhibits properties of a highly magnetized neutron star or magnetar, yet its deduced spin period is thousands of times longer than any pulsar ever observed, said NASA in a press release.
The composite image shows the remains of a supernova which is around 9,000 light-year from Earth, in three bands of X-ray light. In this image, the lowest energy X-rays from Chandra are red, the medium band is green, and the highest energy X-rays are blue. The bright blue X-ray source in the middle of RCW 103 is 1E 1613, according to the press release.
Check out the image here:
NASA in its Instagram caption reads, "Our Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory telescope and several other X-ray telescopes observed one of the most extreme rotating neutron stars or pulsars - ever detected in 2016. Swift Observatory helps detect gamma-ray bursts - large gamma radiation pulses which form when a massive star collapses, creating a black hole - using optical, ultraviolet, and X-ray light."
It further added, "This composite image shows the remains of a supernova, around 9,000 light-years from Earth, in three bands of X-ray light detected by @NASAChandraXRay, with low energy X-rays in red, medium in green, and the highest in blue."
"Image description: Blank space as black as #Midnight is dotted with tiny white stars across the image. A swirling labyrinth of colours of blue, green, yellow, purple, and red makes up the center of the photo surrounding the neutron star in bright blue," NASA wrote.
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