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3mo ago

High-Speed Pulsar Collision Fractures Massive Galactic Filament G359.13

NASA confirms a pulsar traveling up to 2 million mph likely caused the break in a 230-light-year-long cosmic structure near the Milky Way's center.

Image
The fracture in "the Snake", one of the Milky Way's longest and brightest Galactic Center Filaments—and, inset, the pulsar believed responsible for the break.

Overview

  • Researchers identified a fracture in the elongated filament G359.13, located 26,000 light-years from Earth near the Milky Way's center.
  • The fracture was likely caused by a high-velocity pulsar colliding with the filament at speeds between 1 and 2 million miles per hour.
  • X-ray data from NASA's Chandra Observatory and radio observations from MeerKAT and the Very Large Array revealed the pulsar at the fracture site.
  • G359.13, one of the longest galactic filaments at 230 light-years, is threaded by magnetic fields and energized particles emitting radio waves.
  • The findings, published in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, include possible additional X-ray emissions from accelerated electrons and positrons near the pulsar.