Latest news with #F.Yusef-Zadeh
Newsweek
02-05-2025
- Science
- Newsweek
Cosmic Broken 'Bone' Caused by Pulsar Hit-and-Run, NASA Satellite Reveals
Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources. Newsweek AI is in beta. Translations may contain inaccuracies—please refer to the original content. The Milky Way has a broken "bone"—and it was caused by a collision with a pulsar, a rapidly rotating neutron star, speeding through it at some 1–2 million miles per hour. This is the diagnosis of a U.S.-based team of astronomers, led from Northwestern University, who studied the cosmic fracture in G359.13142-0.20005 (also known as "the Snake"), one of a number of enormous, elongated structures found near the center of our galaxy. Located in the constellation Sagittarius, some 26,000 light-years from the Earth, the Snake is a 230 light-year-long "Galactic Center Filament." The team examined the Snake not with a hospital X-ray machine, but NASA's Chandra X-ray observatory (as well as the MeerKAT radio array in South Africa). "We argue that the major kink is created by a fast-moving object punching into the Snake, distorting its magnetic structure, and producing X-ray emission," the researchers wrote in their paper. 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. 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. X-ray: NASA/CXC/Northwestern Univ./F. Yusef-Zadeh et al; Radio: NRF/SARAO/MeerKat; Image Processing: The Snake is one of the largest and brightest of all the Milky Way's Galactic Center Filaments. These bone-like structures, which can be seen in radio wave observations, are threaded by magnetic fields which they run parallel to. The radio emissions from these galactic bones are caused by energized particles spiraling along the magnetic fields. In the newly-released image—which includes X-ray data from Chandra in blue and radio data from MeerKAT in gray—the fracture can be clearly seen in the otherwise uninterrupted length of G359.13142-0.20005. Combining the Chandra and MeerKAT observations with data from the Very Large Array, a radio observatory in the Plains of San Agustin, Mexico, revealed a source of both radio waves and X-rays at the site of the fracture. In the inset, the pulsar that is likely responsible for these emissions is highlighted. Additional X-rays may be being emitted from the collision site by electrons and positrons that have been accelerated to high energies. Pulsars—like other neutron stars—are the dense remnants of massive stars that collapsed and went supernova. They can receive a powerful kick from these explosions, sending them careening through space at great speed. The astronomers believe that when the runaway pulsar smashed into the middle of the Snake, it distorted the filament's magnetic field, causing the resulting radio signal to be deformed as well. "A secondary kink is argued to be induced by the impact of the high-velocity object producing the major kink," the researchers wrote. Do you have a tip on a science story that Newsweek should be covering? Do you have a question about space? Let us know via science@ Reference Yusef-Zadeh, F., Zhao, J.-H., Arendt, R., Wardle, M., Heinke, C. O., Royster, M., Lang, C., & Michail, J. (2024). G359.13142-0.20005: A steep spectrum radio pulsar candidate with an X-ray counterpart running into the Galactic Centre Snake (G359.1-0.2). Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 530(1), 254–263.
India Today
02-05-2025
- Science
- India Today
Mega collision in Milky Way galaxy fractured its bone. We have a picture
Astronomers have discovered a huge fracture in the cosmic bone of the Milky Way galaxy and Nasa has released an image of what it appears like.X-ray data from Chandra and radio data from the MeerKAT radio array in South Africa show the cosmic bone dubbed G359.13 by Nasa. Nasa researchers looked closely at the mysterious structure and revealed the presence of a break, or fracture, in the otherwise continuous length of have discovered an X-ray and radio source at the location of the fracture, using the data from Chandra and MeerKAT and the National Science Foundation's Very Large Array. NASA/CXC/Northwestern Univ./F. Yusef-Zadeh et al; Radio: NRF/SARAO/MeerKat; Image Processing: NASA/CXC/SAO/N. Wolk The fracture is likely caused by a pulsar that smashed into G359.13 at a speed between one million and two million miles per hour.A pulsar is a highly magnetised, rotating neutron star that emits beams of electromagnetic radiation from its magnetic poles. These beams sweep across space like lighthouse beams, and when one of them points toward Earth, we see a regular pulse of radiation. Typically about 20 kilometres in diameter but more massive than the Sun. They can rotate extremely fast—some spin hundreds of times per collision between the pulsar and the cosmic bone happened at a staggering speed of one million and two million miles per hour. This new image shows one of these cosmic 'bones'. (Photo: Nasa) At about 230 light-years long, G359.13 is one of the longest and brightest of these structures in the Milky Way. To put this into context, there are more than 800 stars within that distance from Earth. G359.13 is located about 26,000 light-years from Earth, near the centre of the Milky details of the findings have been published in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Reel
