Astronomers have made a fascinating discovery of a new rapidly spinning star that zooms through the universe at millions of miles per hour and rotates 14 times every second. The pulsar, a rapidly spinning core of a dead star, not only spins fast but also generates a powerful particle wind, creating a structure known as a “pulsar wind nebula“. The team behind this discovery used two radio telescopes to make the find, the Australia’s Square Kilometer Array Pathfinder (ASKAP), the Parkes radio telescope, and the South African MeerKAT radio telescope.
The nebula, located approximately 33,000 light-years from Earth, looks like it’s about 69 light-years wide when viewed in radio waves, but only a tenth of that size when viewed in X-rays.
The remarkable size of the nebula, which is 46 times wider than the solar system, has led the discovery team to name it “Potoroo”, in honor of a tiny hopping marsupial native to Australia.
Just like all neutron stars, this pulsar, known as PSR J1638–4713, came into existence when a massive star finished fuel for nuclear fusion, resulting in a core collapse and dense matter. This pulsar is now spinning rapidly and emits radiation as it sweeps through space. The released wind from the pulsar creates the pulsar wind nebula, where the particles gradually lose energy while moving away from the central neutron star.
Examining the light emitted from these pulsar wind nebulas can provide us with important information about the movement of particles around neutron stars. The shape of the Potoroo may hint that the pulsar is speeding through surrounding matter, transforming the pulsar wind nebula into a bow shock shape similar to a boat pushing through water. This has certainly given astronomers new insight into the cosmic wonders that exist, raising new and intriguing questions about the nature and behavior of these swiftly moving stars.
