An image from NASAs Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer (IXPE) observations of the Vela pulsar wind nebula. The colors represent various X-ray intensities, with the brightest regions in red and the faintest regions in blue. The black lines offer the instructions of the electromagnetic field based upon the IXPE information and the silver lines give the instructions of the magnetic field based upon radio information from the Australia Telescope Compact Array. The grey shapes reveal the X-ray strengths from Chandra information. The pulsar is located near the center of the brightest X-ray emission. Credit: Xie et al, 2022 (Nature).
From the surface of this pulsar, winds of particles emerge that travel near the speed of light, developing a chaotic hodgepodge of charged particles and magnetic fields that crash into surrounding gas. This phenomenon is called a pulsar wind nebula.
Light blue represents X-ray polarization data from NASAs Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer. Pink and purple colors correspond to information from NASAs Chandra X-Ray observatory, which has observed Vela a number of times formerly.
In this brand-new image, the hazy light blue halo corresponds to the first-ever X-ray polarization data for Vela, which comes from NASAs Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer, or IXPE. The pink X-ray “arcs” are believed to mark the edges of donut-shaped regions where the pulsar wind shocks and accelerates high-energy particles.
Pink and purple colors correspond to data from NASAs Chandra X-ray Observatory, which has actually observed Vela a number of times formerly. The golden stars were caught by NASAs Hubble Space Telescope.
An image from NASAs Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer (IXPE) observations of the Vela pulsar wind nebula. Light blue represents X-ray polarization data from NASAs Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer. In this brand-new image, the hazy light blue halo corresponds to the first-ever X-ray polarization data for Vela, which comes from NASAs Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer, or IXPE. An image from NASAs Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer (IXPE) observations of the Vela pulsar wind nebula. In contrast to supernova remnants that have a shell of material around them, the high polarization of the X-rays “suggests that the electrons were not accelerated by the turbulent shocks that appear crucial in other X-ray sources,” stated Roger W. Romani, a Stanford astrophysicist included in the IXPE information analysis.
Measuring polarization, which pertains to how electromagnetic waves are organized, provides researchers an unprecedented understanding of how a cosmic item like a pulsar speeds up particles to high speeds.
Artists representation of IXPE in Earth orbit. Credit: NASA.
” With IXPE, we are using extreme things like Vela as a laboratory to investigate some of the most pressing questions in astrophysics, such as how particles get catapulted to near the speed of light long after a star has actually exploded,” stated Phil Kaaret, senior scientist at NASAs Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama.
In a current research study, scientists were amazed about the high degree of polarization they found in the X-rays at the Vela pulsar wind nebula. IXPE observations of this things were published in the journal Nature in December.
” This is the greatest degree of polarization measured in a celestial X-ray source to date,” said Fei Xie, lead author of the Nature research study, teacher at Guangxi University in Nanning, Guangxi, China, and formerly a postdoctoral scientist at Italys National Institute for Astrophysics/Institute for Space Astrophysics and Planetology (INAF/IAPS) in Rome.
An image from NASAs Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer (IXPE) observations of the Vela pulsar wind nebula. The colors represent different X-ray strengths, with the brightest areas in red and the faintest regions in blue. The black lines offer the instructions of the magnetic field based on the IXPE information and the silver lines offer the instructions of the electromagnetic field based upon radio information from the Australia Telescope Compact Array. The grey contours show the X-ray strengths from Chandra information. The pulsar is situated near the center of the brightest X-ray emission. Credit: Xie et al, 2022 (Nature).
High polarization indicates that the electromagnetic fields are well arranged; they are lined up in particular directions, and depend upon their position in the nebula. Whats more, the X-rays that IXPE discovers come from high-energy electrons spiraling in the magnetic fields of the pulsar wind nebula, called “synchrotron emission.” Highly polarized X-rays means that these magnetic fields, too, should be well arranged.
In contrast to supernova residues that have a shell of material around them, the high polarization of the X-rays “suggests that the electrons were not accelerated by the rough shocks that seem important in other X-ray sources,” said Roger W. Romani, a Stanford astrophysicist associated with the IXPE data analysis. Instead, there need to be some other process included, such as magnetic reconnection, which includes the breaking and joining of magnetic field lines. That is a way in which magnetic energy gets converted to particle energy.
IXPE information likewise suggest that the electromagnetic field is lined up as a smooth donut-shaped structure around the equator of the pulsar. This shape was in line with researchers expectations.
” This IXPE X-ray polarization measurement adds a missing piece of the Vela pulsar wind nebula puzzle,” says Alessandro Di Marco, a scientist at INAF/IAPS in Rome who contributed to the data analysis. “By mapping with unprecedented resolution, IXPE unveils the electromagnetic field in the central region, revealing contract with results acquired from radio images of the outer nebula.”.
The Vela pulsar, located about 1,000 light-years from Earth, has to do with 15 miles (25 kilometers) in diameter and turns 11 times per second, faster than a helicopter rotor.
Referral: “Vela pulsar wind nebula X-rays are polarized to near the synchrotron limitation” by Fei Xie, Alessandro Di Marco, Fabio La Monaca, Kuan Liu, Fabio Muleri, Niccolò Bucciantini, Roger W. Romani, Enrico Costa, John Rankin, Paolo Soffitta, Matteo Bachetti, Niccolò Di Lalla, Sergio Fabiani, Riccardo Ferrazzoli, Shuichi Gunji, Luca Latronico, Michela Negro, Nicola Omodei, Maura Pilia, Alessio Trois, Eri Watanabe, Iván Agudo, Lucio A. Antonelli, Luca Baldini, Wayne H. Baumgartner, Ronaldo Bellazzini, Stefano Bianchi, Stephen D. Bongiorno, Raffaella Bonino, Alessandro Brez, Fiamma Capitanio, Simone Castellano, Elisabetta Cavazzuti, Stefano Ciprini, Alessandra De Rosa, Ettore Del Monte, Laura Di Gesu, Immacolata Donnarumma, Victor Doroshenko, Michal Dovčiak, Steven R. Ehlert, Teruaki Enoto, Yuri Evangelista, Javier A. Garcia, Kiyoshi Hayashida, Jeremy Heyl, Wataru Iwakiri, Svetlana G. Jorstad, Vladimir Karas, Takao Kitaguchi, Jeffery J. Kolodziejczak, Henric Krawczynski, Ioannis Liodakis, Simone Maldera, Alberto Manfreda, Frédéric Marin, Andrea Marinucci, Alan P. Marscher, Herman L. Marshall, Francesco Massaro, Giorgio Matt, Ikuyuki Mitsuishi, Tsunefumi Mizuno, C.-Y. Ng, Stephen L. ODell, Chiara Oppedisano, Alessandro Papitto, George G. Pavlov, Abel L. Peirson, Matteo Perri, Melissa Pesce-Rollins, Pierre-Olivier Petrucci, Andrea Possenti, Juri Poutanen, Simonetta Puccetti, Brian D. Ramsey, Ajay Ratheesh, Carmelo Sgró, Patrick Slane, Gloria Spandre, Toru Tamagawa, Fabrizio Tavecchio, Roberto Taverna, Yuzuru Tawara, Allyn F. Tennant, Nicolas E. Thomas, Francesco Tombesi, Sergey S. Tsygankov, Roberto Turolla, Jacco Vink, Martin C. Weisskopf, Kinwah Wu and Silvia Zane, 21 December 2022, Nature.DOI: 10.1038/ s41586-022-05476-5.
About the IXPE objective.
Part of NASAs Small Explorer objective series, IXPE introduced on a Falcon 9 rocket from NASAs Kennedy Space Center in Florida in December 2021. It now orbits 370 miles, or approximately 595 kilometers, above Earths equator. The objective is a collaboration between NASA and the Italian Space Agency, with partners and science partners in 13 countries. Ball Aerospace, headquartered in Broomfield, Colorado, manages spacecraft operations.