- أ[{”attribute=””>pulsarisracingthroughthedebrisofanexplodedstarataspeedofoveramillionmilesperhour[{”attribute=””>pulsarisracingthroughthedebrisofanexplodedstarataspeedofoveramillionmilesperhour
- To measure this, researchers compared
The team calculated that the pulsar was moving at least 1.4 million miles per hour from the center of the supernova remnant to the lower left. This velocity is about 30% higher than the previous estimate of the pulsar’s velocity which was based on an indirect method, by measuring how far the pulsar is from the center of the explosion.
The newly determined velocity of the pulsar suggests that G292.0 + 1.8 and the pulsar may be much smaller than astronomers previously thought. The researchers estimate that G292.0 + 1.8 could have erupted about 2,000 years ago as seen from Earth, rather than 3,000 years ago as previously calculated. This new estimate of G292.0 + 1.8’s age is based on extrapolating the pulsar’s location back in time to coincide with the blast’s epicenter.
Many civilizations around the world were recording supernova explosions at the time, opening up the possibility of directly observing G292.0 + 1.8. However, G292.0 + 1.8 is below the horizon for most Northern Hemisphere civilizations that you may have observed, and there are no recorded examples of a supernova being observed in the Southern Hemisphere in the direction of G292.0 + 1.8.
In addition to learning more about G292.0 + 1.8’s age, the research team also studied how the pulsar’s supernova gave its powerful kick. There are two main possibilities, both of which involve material not being ejected by the supernova evenly in all directions. One possibility is that the neutrinos produced in the explosion are ejected from the explosion asymmetrically, and the other is that the debris from the explosion is ejected asymmetrically. If matter had a preferred orientation, the pulsar would be pushed in the opposite direction due to a physics principle called conservation of momentum.
The amount of neutrino asymmetry required to explain the high velocity in this last result would be extreme, supporting the interpretation that the asymmetry in the explosion’s debris gave the pulsar its kick.
The energy transferred to the pulsar from this explosion was enormous. Although the pulsar is only about 10 miles in diameter, the pulsar has a mass of 500,000 times that of Earth, and it travels 20 times faster than the speed of Earth orbiting the sun.
https://www.youtube.com/watch؟v=0itTrIYIOlI
The latest work by Xi Long and Paul Plucinksky (Astrophysics Center | Harvard & Smithsonian) on G292.0 + 1.8 was presented at the 240th Meeting of the American Astronomical Society in Pasadena, California. The results are also discussed in a paper accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journal. The other authors of the paper are Daniel Patnaud and Terence Gaetz, both from the Center for Astrophysics.
Reference: “Proper motion of pulsar J1124-5916 in the galactic supernova remnant G292.0 + 1.8” by Xi Long, Daniel J. Patnaude, Paul P. Plucinsky, and Terrance J. Gaetz, Accepted, Astrophysical Journal.
arXiv: 2205.07951
NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center manages the Chandra program. The Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory’s Chandra X-ray Center controls science operations from Cambridge, Massachusetts, and flight operations from Burlington, Massachusetts.