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Astronomers Reveal X-ray Image of Crab Nebula
By Greg Clark
Staff Writer
posted: 01:31 pm ET
28 September 1999
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chandra-advance990928NASA has released the most detailed image ever taken of the Crab nebula at X-ray wavelengths. Scientists are calling the latest image from the Chandra X-ray observatory a spectacular show of detail never seen before. "It will knock your socks off," said Wallace Tucker, an astrophysicist at the Harvard Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, the organization that operates the Chandra telescope. The image was taken at a resolution similar to that achieved by the Hubble Space Telescope at optical wavelengths, but it reveals structures that are not visible when viewed in optical light. The X-ray image shows waves radiating out from the center of the nebula, Tucker said, where a very powerful neutron star called a pulsar spins at tremendous speeds and radiates extremely high energy. Scientists have long wondered just how energy from a dense neutron star, which Tucker estimates might be the size of New York's Manhattan island, could move into the entire nebula, which is light years across. "Everyone has sort of known this must be happening, because they knew the pulsar was there, they knew the nebula was there and they deduced from the pulses that somehow it was feeding the nebula with energy," Tucker said. "Now they're beginning to see that in some detail with this x-ray picture."
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