From time to time, NASA emits some surreal and literally “out of the world” images from different parts of the universe, captured by their numerous research telescopes. On Tuesday, the space agency’s 21-year-old Chandra X-ray observatory released an image of a pulsar.
A pulsar is a space material that radiates two narrow beams of light in other directions. Pulses are known to spin, leading untrained human beings to believe that they are twinkling stars, which they are not. They are as big as a city and carry more weight than the sun. Scientists keep an eye out for pulsars as they search for planets outside the solar system.
The image of a pulsar captured by a Chandra X-ray observer shared on his Instagram account can be identified as the bright blue light on the right.
The pulsar shown in the image – SXP 1062 – is said to be among the slowest, with one full motion taking 18 minutes. PSR J1748-2446ad, the fastest rotating pulsar known to astronauts, by contrast, orbits 716 times per second!
This pulsar appears to be among the thousands of pulsars found by the Chandra since 1999, but damaged by some of the other finds.
“Chandra has tracked the separation of dark matter from normal material in galaxy hits in a browser and it contributes to both the study of dark matter and dark energy,” says the telescope website.
For the latest astronomy and astronomy experts out there, it’s worth keeping an eye on the Chandra, which has its finds in far corners of the universe as a revelation.