The Swift Detection Caught Astronomers' Attention

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.

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:

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by NASA (@nasa)

 

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.

 

This article originally appeared on ndtv and Fetch With Intels News Feed Content Fetcher