CAMBRIDGE, Mass., June 1 (UPI) -- Astronomers using NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory have discovered a neutron star producing a wake of high-energy particles as it races through space.
"Like a kite flying in the wind, the behavior of this neutron star and its wake tell us what sort of gas it must be plowing through," said Bryan Gaensler of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge, Mass. "Yet we're still not sure how the neutron star got to its present location."
The neutron star appears to lie near the outer edge of an expanding bubble of hot gas associated with a supernova remnant. Presumably, the neutron star was created at the time of the supernova -- approximately 30,000 years ago -- and propelled away from the explosion.
But the neutron star's wake is oriented nearly perpendicularly to the direction expected if the neutron star were moving away from the center of the supernova remnant. That has raised doubts about its association with the supernova remnant.
Gaensler and colleagues say they've found strong evidence the neutron star was born in the same explosion that created the supernova remnant.
The study is to appear in The Astrophysical Journal.
