The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has shared a stunning image of a supernova, which will leave you amazed. The Chandra X-ray Observatory telescope has captured this dazzling picture and shared it on Instagram.
NASA, too, shared this mind-blowing photo of the supernova on its Instagram page.
According to NASA, the telescope clicked a bright source of light at the center of the supernova RCW 103 remnant in 2016. And, it is a neutron star.
This stellar object is about 10, 700 light from Earth.
What NASA said?
While sharing the picture, NASA wrote: “The bright source at the center of supernova remnant RCW 103 is a neutron star.”
“Matter in a neutron star is packed together so tightly that a sugar-cube-sized amount of neutron star material would weigh more than 1 billion tons – roughly the weight of Mount Everest!”
The post has got over 20 likes on Instagram. Several users shared their thoughts on the post as some found it “amazing”, while others called it “fascinating”.
NASA explained its properties and said that this object was the most extreme pulsars, or spinning neutron stars, ever discovered. A compact neutron star is the source.
It shows the properties of a strongly magnetised neutron star or a magnetar. However, the derived spin period is a thousand times longer than any pulsar ever observed.
Why is Supernova RCW 103 unique?
Supernova RCW 103 is unique because the constant change in the X-ray brightness of its source with a period of about six and a half hours was a mystery to astronomers.
one of the proposed models could clearly explain slow periodicity, but the main ideas were of either a spinning neutron star rotating very slowly due to an unknown deceleration mechanism, or a faster rotating neutron star.
After collecting data from Chandra X-Ray, Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array, XMM-Newton, astronomers expect a single neutron star to spin swiftly after its birth in the explosion. And it will then gradually slow down when it loses energy.
However, astronomers believe that the magnetar or neutron star in RCW 103 is almost 2,000 years old. And this is not enough to slow the pulsar to a period of 24,000 seconds by conventional means.
What is Supernova?
A supernova is an astronomical process that takes place during the last evolutionary stages of a massive star. A neutron star is the collapsed core of a massive supergiant star.
This star had a total mass of between 10 and 25 solar masses, or probably more.
NASA keeps the space enthusiasts updated on social media with several astonishing pictures. For example, it recently shared an incredible picture showing snow-covered Himalayas from space.
Watch this space of The Vocal News for more Science Updates!
