Watch: Vela Pulsar Spews A Stream of High-Energy Particles
Vela Pulsar--labelled NASA/CXC/Univ of Toronto/M.Durant et alNASA's Chandra Observatory captured this four trillion mile-long jet spiraling off a rapidly spinning neutron star. NASA's Chandra X-Ray Observatory captured this awesome video of the Vela pulsar, a rapidly rotating neutron star, spewing a long stream of high-energy particles into space: The actual pulsar is just 12 miles across (see the labelled image below), but the stream of particles it's emitting extends over 4 trillion miles into space. The pulsar's enormous power comes from the fact that it is unimaginably dense: a thimble-full of neutron star has about the same mass as six billion people. (That's because it formed after a giant star exploded 10,000 years ago, in a supernova that ripped apart atoms and sent everything lighter than the nucleus flying off into space. The remaining neutrons condensed to form the neutron star.) Also, Vela is spinning faster than the rotor on...