We know that the Jellyfish Nebula is the remains of a star that exploded as a supernova; but was anything left of the star? It turns out yes, the dense core was left and became a neutron star. This is a sphere about 20km across (twice the size of my home city of Bristol), but with more mass than the Sun. In terms of density, it’s second only to a black hole. This particular neutron star is likely to be spinning very rapidly, meaning it is in fact a pulsar.

The pulsar itself is moving through space at a break-neck speed of 800km every second. The reasons for this aren’t known for sure. The original star could have been careening through space when it went supernova, or perhaps the explosion itself blasted the remains of the star, in effect giving it a cosmic kick!

The pulsar is leaving a trail of high-energy particles in its wake as it hurtles through space. These have been observed by astronomers using the Chandra X-Ray space telescope and Very Large Array radio observatory in New Mexico. (More info here).

My telescope and camera can’t detect light in these wavelengths, so the neutron star is invisible to me. Still, I managed to track its location down on my image. It’s a good example of how multi-wavelength astronomy reveals a universe normally hidden from view:

Use the slider below to compare my image with the multi-wavelength professional image.

My imageComposite view

My image onlySplit viewComposite view only

Composite image credit — Chandra X-ray: NASA/CXC/B.Gaensler et al; Radio Detail: NRAO/AUI/NSF; Optical: DSS.