The Crab Nebula is one of the well-known and enigmatic astronomical objects in our night sky, according to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), which released an image of it over the weekend.
The image of the brilliant cosmic object was obtained by NASA’s Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer (IXPE), which launched on December 9, 2021. It is located 6,500 light-years away in the Taurus constellation.
The recently published photograph has a long history, as the sensors that were used to capture it were initially launched in a sounding rocket in 1971. But back then, scientists would initially receive data on a strip chart recorder—a machine that printed signals on paper. On the day of launch, the astronomer Martin Weisskopf and his team started their research by measuring the separation between the signals. They did this using a ruler and pencil.
A few decades later, the astronomer suggested creating a satellite with “powerful instruments” to enable more thorough studies of the Crab Nebula and other unexplained cosmic objects. As a result, IXPE was developed, and more than 50 years later, astronomers have a detailed picture of the magnetic field of the Crab Nebula.
The Crab Nebula is also the result of a supernova documented in the year 1054
“What makes science so beautiful and exciting is that for those few moments, you’re seeing something that no one has ever seen before,” said Weisskopf, in a statement, who is now an emeritus astronomer at NASA. The Crab Nebula is also the result of a supernova documented in the year 1054, said the space agency.
The explosion left behind a dense object called the Crab Pulsar, about the diameter of the length of Manhattan with the mass of about two Suns. “The chaotic mess of gases, shock waves, magnetic fields, and high-energy light and particles coming from the rotating pulsar is collectively called a ‘pulsar wind nebula,’” NASA explained.
However, the extreme conditions which resulted in this “bizarre environment” have not been thoroughly understood. Even after so many years, “every recent large telescope has pointed to the Crab Nebula to better understand this mysterious supernova remnant,” said NASA, in a statement.
“The Crab is one of the most-studied high-energy astrophysical objects in the sky. So it is extremely exciting that we could learn something new about this system by looking through IXPE’s ‘polarized lenses,’” said Michela Negro, a research scientist at NASA and co-author of the study.
Although the nebula’s picture is beautiful, the scientists were primarily interested in learning more about the magnetic field of the Crab Nebula. The map has “more of its inner workings than ever before,” according to NASA.
The Crab Nebula’s magnetic field matches that of the similarly shaped Vela Pulsar Wind Nebula, according to the researchers, but they were taken aback by how the turbulence in some areas of the magnetic field was “more patchy and asymmetrical than expected.”
The findings suggest that those X-rays originate in the outer magnetic field region, called the ‘wind’ region’
Weisskopf and colleagues sought to comprehend the aforementioned “bizarre environment” by analyzing the polarization of X-rays coming from the Crab Nebula. This is due to the fact that X-ray polarization provides scientists with information on the magnetic field’s direction and degree of organization in various regions of a cosmic object.
“The magnetic field’s geometry and turbulence determines how particles get catapulted toward the speed of light,” said NASA. Scientists found that the areas of polarization in the outer regions of the nebula are light-years away from the pulsar, where polarization is lower.
This has enabled them not only to investigate the X-rays from the Crab Nebula but also those coming from the pulsar itself. “The findings suggest that those X-rays originate in the outer magnetic field region, called the ‘wind’ region, although exactly where and how is still unknown,” said NASA.