A Pulsar's Hand
Credit: P. Slane (Harvard-Smithsonian CfA) et al., CXC, NASA
Posted on 05/01/2010 5:44:15 AM PDT by sig226
Explanation: As far as pulsars go, PSR B1509-58 appears young. Light from the supernova explosion that gave birth to it would have first reached Earth some 1,700 years ago. The magnetized, 20 kilometer-diameter neutron star spins 7 times per second, a cosmic dynamo that powers a wind of charged particles. The energetic wind creates the surrounding nebula's X-ray glow in this tantalizing image from the Chandra X-ray Observatory. Low energy X-rays are in red, medium energies in green, and high energies in blue. The pulsar itself is in the bright central region. Remarkably, the nebula's tantalizing, complicated structure resembles a hand. PSR B1509-58 is about 17,000 light-years away in the southern constellation Circinus. At that distance the Chandra image spans 100 light-years.
They may have it wrong, but it is an interesting explanation:
http://www.thunderbolts.info/tpod/2010/arch10/100331pulsars.htm
ping
pong
Thank you. Now THIS would be a source of virtually unlimited energy if we could tap into somehow. Simply awesome!
It would be handy...
Cosmic Engine
Very Cool!
Or more probably, HOT!
Yeah but getting close enough to get to it would fry the Earth most likely.
Without a doubt and heck, just getting there would take hundreds if not thousands of years. I dunno, maybe a real long extension cord? :-)
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