Cosmic Hand Reaches for the Light
Tiny and dying but still-powerful stars called pulsars spin like crazy and light up their surroundings, often with ghostly glows. So it is with PSR B1509-58, which long ago collapsed into a sphere just 12 miles in diameter after running out of fuel. And what a strange scene this one has created. In a new image from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory, high-energy X-rays emanating from the nebula around PSR B1509-58 have been colored blue to reveal a structure resembling a hand reaching for some eternal red cosmic light. The star now spins around at the dizzying pace of seven times every second — as pulsars do — spewing energy into space that creates the scene. READ MORE>>
