Revved-up antics of a pulsar jet. (Astronomy).Whipping around like an out-of-control tire hose, a mammoth jet of charged particles gushing gush v. gushed, gush·ing, gush·es v.intr. 1. To flow forth suddenly in great volume: water gushing from a hydrant. 2. from a collapsed star is varying its shape and brightness more rapidly than any other known jet in the heavens. The jet, a half light-year in length, is spewing electrons and positrons from the Vela pulsar, a rapidly rotating neutron star a mere 20 kilometers in diameter. A time-lapse movie made using images from the Chandra X-ray Observatory Chandra X-ray Observatory U.S. X-ray space telescope. It was named after astrophysicist Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar and was launched into orbit in 1999. Its mirror, with an aperture of 1.2 m (4 ft) and a focal length of 10 m (33 ft), produces unprecedented resolution. shows that the outer half of the jet bends and flails. In mere weeks, the jet, which contains bright blobs flying out at half the sped of light, varies from being straight to hook-shaped. Confined by strong magnetic fields magnetic fields, n.pl the spaces in which magnetic forces are detectable; created by magnetostrictive ultrasonic scalers to cause the tips of instruments such as ultrasonic scalers to vibrate. , the X-ray-emitting particles in the Velajet are accelerated by voltages 100 million times that of a lightning bolt, says Marcus A. Teter of Pennsylvania State University Pennsylvania State University, main campus at University Park, State College; land-grant and state supported; coeducational; chartered 1855, opened 1859 as Farmers' High School. in State College. That potential is created by the rapid rotation of the pulsar pulsar, in astronomy, a neutron star that emits brief, sharp pulses of energy instead of the steady radiation associated with other natural sources. The study of pulsars began when Antony Hewish and his students at Cambridge Univ. , as well as the star's intense magnetic field. The jet's variability may be caused by headwinds created as the pulsar plows through space at 300,000 kilometers per hour. The blobs may mark where increased magnetic fields and particle pressure have caused kinks in the jet's flow. Studying the antics of the Vela vela plural of velum. jet may shed light on jets spewed by supermassive black holes, which tan take millions of years to vary significantly, says Teeter. He and his Penn State colleagues describe their study in the July 10 Astrophysical Journal.--R.C. |
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