When a massive star collapses, the subsequent supernova can leave behind the star’s condensed core in the form of a neutron star. Some neutron stars are also pulsars, which rotate at incredible speeds, emit beamed radio emission, and expel winds of charged particles. A pulsar’s relativistic charged-particle winds billow around the pulsar as it travels through space — often at a few hundreds of kilometers per second or faster, having received a “kick” when its progenitor star exploded. When these winds interact with the surrounding supernova ejecta or the interstellar medium, the interaction creates a detectable pulsar wind nebula. The image above combines data from the Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder (orange) and Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (cyan) to show a pulsar wind nebula, indicated with a white rectangle, within a larger supernova remnant. Sanja Lazarević (Western Sydney University) and collaborators discovered this pulsar wind nebula, which they’ve named “Thunder” in a nod to the supernova remnant’s moniker, “Nimbus.” The cometary shape of the pulsar wind nebula suggests that the pulsar is moving quickly, traveling outward from the center of the explosion that occurred some 30,000–45,000 years ago. To learn more about the discovery and characterization of this pulsar wind nebula, check out the article linked below.

Citation

“EMU Discovery of Thunder: A Bow-Shock PWN Powered by PSR J1631–4722 Escaping the Nimbus SNR (G336.7+0.5),” S. Lazarević et al 2026 ApJ 1007 159. doi:10.3847/1538-4357/ae7f11

The post Featured Image: A Pulsar in a Nebula in a Supernova Remnant appeared first on AAS Nova.

The supernova remnant W50 — nicknamed “the Manatee” because its blobby radio emission resembles an aquatic mammal floating through starry waters — harbors an extreme system at its heart. Near the center of the remnant, the microquasar SS 433 exhibits an immense pair of relativistic jets, likely powered by a stellar-mass black hole accreting material from a companion star. In the image of W50/SS 433 above, radio emission is in red, optical light is in yellow, and soft, medium, and hard X-ray emission are in green, cyan, and magenta, respectively. Brydyn Mac Intyre (University of Manitoba) and collaborators focused on the region circled above, using NuSTAR and XMM-Newton to understand the source of the X-ray emission in that region and the potential for SS 433 to accelerate particles to relativistic velocities. These observations suggest that W50/SS 433 accelerates electrons up to energies of more than 100 teraelectronvolts, and it may launch other particles into the highly sought-after petaelectronvolt range. To learn more about the particle-acceleration possibilities in this remarkable region, be sure to check out the full research article linked below.

Citation

“The Western Jet of SS 433/W50: Hard X-Ray Emission, Spectral Evolution, and Comparison to the Eastern Jet,” Brydyn Mac Intyre et al 2026 ApJ 1006 69. doi:10.3847/1538-4357/ae7a47

The post Featured Image: The Microquasar and the Manatee appeared first on AAS Nova.

A new study of two supernova remnants, the debris left behind after stars explode, suggests the explosions came from stellar siblings that once orbited each other. The first star’s detonation sent its binary companion hurtling through space, and then, after traveling for thousands of years, the surviving star blew up too.

“Using 16 years of data from NASA’s Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope, our analysis uncovered gamma rays associated with a supernova remnant that was hidden in the glare of its neighbor, the Jellyfish Nebula, one of the brightest gamma-ray-emitting supernova remnants known,” said Miltiadis Michailidis, a postdoctoral fellow in the physics department at Stanford University in California. “There are so many striking connections between the two remnants that we conclude they’re likely related, giving us the first known example of a binary system where both stars have undergone supernova explosions.”

Michailidis presented the findings Wednesday at the 248th meeting of the American Astronomical Society in Pasadena, California. A paper describing the results will appear in a future edition of Nature Communications.

The study focused on a faint supernova remnant called G189.6+3.3, which is mainly visible in X-rays. It is upstaged by its brighter and better-known neighbor, the Jellyfish Nebula (IC 443). The two star wrecks, both located in the constellation Gemini, appear to partially overlap as seen in X-rays. Recent X-ray evidence suggests that hot plasma likely associated with G189.6+3.3 may extend across the entire region, a hint that the overlap may be nearly total.

A massive star explodes when its energy-producing core runs out of fuel and collapses under its own weight, triggering an explosion that blows the star apart. The explosion’s shock wave encloses a hot cloud of debris that rapidly expands into space. So far, astronomers have cataloged about 300 supernova remnants in our galaxy.  

The Fermi mission is part of NASA’s fleet of observatories monitoring the changing cosmos to help humanity better understand how the universe works. More than a decade ago, observations from Fermi’s LAT (Large Area Telescope) showed that the shock waves of supernova remnants accelerated particles to within a fraction of the speed of light, a process first proposed by physicist Enrico Fermi — the mission’s namesake — in 1949.

These high-speed particles, called cosmic rays, interact with interstellar gas to produce gamma rays, the highest-energy form of light. Protons make up 99% of cosmic ray particles. To prove that accelerated protons are responsible for the glow, astronomers search for a specific gamma-ray feature. When cosmic-ray protons smash into interstellar gas, they produce a short-lived particle called a neutral pion, which almost immediately decays into a pair of gamma rays. This emission occurs within a specific band of energies associated with the neutral pion’s mass and lies within the range detected by Fermi’s LAT instrument.

In 2013, Fermi observations proved that the Jellyfish Nebula, which is interacting with part of a glowing cloud of hydrogen gas known as Sharpless 249, produced gamma rays through this mechanism. Its neighbor, G189.6+3.3, was discovered in 1994 as part of an X-ray survey by the German-led ROSAT (Roentgen Satellite) mission.

A bright filament of gas lies between the overlapping remnants. New observations of this feature reveal that the shock wave from G189.6+3.3 slammed into dense interstellar gas there and dramatically slowed, key evidence that both remnants are interacting with the same cloud system.

Astronomers think the Jellyfish Nebula is also a candidate PeVatron, a cosmic particle accelerator capable of boosting protons to energies so high they could nearly escape our galaxy. Such particles can produce gamma rays with trillions of times more energy than visible light. Finding a second particle accelerator near the Jellyfish Nebula could offer scientists new clues for how supernova remnants develop into PeVatrons.

“The overlapping remnants, a connecting gas filament, and the availability of data from Fermi and other facilities motivated us to delve into this complex but little-studied region,” said co-author Marianne Lemoine-Goumard, an astrophysicist at the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS) based at the University of Bordeaux. “With Fermi’s LAT instrument, we found gamma-ray emission associated with accelerated protons in the northern part of the fainter remnant. If both remnants are interacting with the same structure, then they must share a common distance from us.”

The team concludes the remnants lie about 6,000 light-years away, their explosion centers are separated by roughly 40 light-years projected onto the plane of the sky, and the original stars may have been 20 or more times the Sun’s mass.

Estimates of the remnants’ ages vary widely, but the team concludes that the age of the Jellyfish Nebula is 8,000 to 9,000 years, while G189.6+3.3 is between 20,000 to 110,000 years old. This means the delay between the explosions could have extended for up to 100,000 years.

In addition, the team conducted computer simulations of a million massive binary systems. They show that systems where the stars orbit close enough to exchange matter and interact during their lives can readily produce dual supernova explosions with similar separations and time delays as those found for the remnants. The team also estimated that the chance of randomly encountering this combination of observed spatial alignment and compatible distances to be less than 1%, strongly supporting a physical association.

“The evidence we’ve compiled — including observations across the spectrum, the chemical and physical properties of the remnants, simulations, and more — paints a compelling picture of a dual supernova event,” said Michailidis.

This study identifies a unique possible example of a binary system where both stars exploded as supernovae and left behind separate, detectable supernova remnants. Astronomers think that most massive stars form in binary or multiple-star systems. The Jellyfish Nebula/G189.6+3.3 complex offers astronomers a rare opportunity to study how massive binary stars evolve, exchange matter, explode, and experience velocity changes — called kicks — induced by the supernova blast. It also provides a powerful new laboratory for understanding how coupled supernova remnants behave, including how they accelerate particles, generate gamma rays, and shape their surrounding environments.

“Fermi’s gamma-ray observations of supernova remnants continue to reveal the dynamic lives of stars,” said Elizabeth Hays, the Fermi project scientist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. “We can now connect the glowing remains of two massive stars to a powerful pair that evolved together over thousands of years.”

By Francis Reddy
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.

Media Contact:
Claire Andreoli
301-286-1940
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.

A new study of two supernova remnants, the debris left behind after stars explode, suggests the explosions came from stellar siblings that once orbited each other. The first star’s detonation sent its binary companion hurtling through space, and then, after traveling for thousands of years, the surviving star blew up too.

“Using 16 years of data from NASA’s Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope, our analysis uncovered gamma rays associated with a supernova remnant that was hidden in the glare of its neighbor, the Jellyfish Nebula, one of the brightest gamma-ray-emitting supernova remnants known,” said Miltiadis Michailidis, a postdoctoral fellow in the physics department at Stanford University in California. “There are so many striking connections between the two remnants that we conclude they’re likely related, giving us the first known example of a binary system where both stars have undergone supernova explosions.”

Michailidis presented the findings Wednesday at the 248th meeting of the American Astronomical Society in Pasadena, California. A paper describing the results will appear in a future edition of Nature Communications.

The study focused on a faint supernova remnant called G189.6+3.3, which is mainly visible in X-rays. It is upstaged by its brighter and better-known neighbor, the Jellyfish Nebula (IC 443). The two star wrecks, both located in the constellation Gemini, appear to partially overlap as seen in X-rays. Recent X-ray evidence suggests that hot plasma likely associated with G189.6+3.3 may extend across the entire region, a hint that the overlap may be nearly total.

A massive star explodes when its energy-producing core runs out of fuel and collapses under its own weight, triggering an explosion that blows the star apart. The explosion’s shock wave encloses a hot cloud of debris that rapidly expands into space. So far, astronomers have cataloged about 300 supernova remnants in our galaxy.  

The Fermi mission is part of NASA’s fleet of observatories monitoring the changing cosmos to help humanity better understand how the universe works. More than a decade ago, observations from Fermi’s LAT (Large Area Telescope) showed that the shock waves of supernova remnants accelerated particles to within a fraction of the speed of light, a process first proposed by physicist Enrico Fermi — the mission’s namesake — in 1949.

These high-speed particles, called cosmic rays, interact with interstellar gas to produce gamma rays, the highest-energy form of light. Protons make up 99% of cosmic ray particles. To prove that accelerated protons are responsible for the glow, astronomers search for a specific gamma-ray feature. When cosmic-ray protons smash into interstellar gas, they produce a short-lived particle called a neutral pion, which almost immediately decays into a pair of gamma rays. This emission occurs within a specific band of energies associated with the neutral pion’s mass and lies within the range detected by Fermi’s LAT instrument.

In 2013, Fermi observations proved that the Jellyfish Nebula, which is interacting with part of a glowing cloud of hydrogen gas known as Sharpless 249, produced gamma rays through this mechanism. Its neighbor, G189.6+3.3, was discovered in 1994 as part of an X-ray survey by the German-led ROSAT (Roentgen Satellite) mission.

A bright filament of gas lies between the overlapping remnants. New observations of this feature reveal that the shock wave from G189.6+3.3 slammed into dense interstellar gas there and dramatically slowed, key evidence that both remnants are interacting with the same cloud system.

Astronomers think the Jellyfish Nebula is also a candidate PeVatron, a cosmic particle accelerator capable of boosting protons to energies so high they could nearly escape our galaxy. Such particles can produce gamma rays with trillions of times more energy than visible light. Finding a second particle accelerator near the Jellyfish Nebula could offer scientists new clues for how supernova remnants develop into PeVatrons.

“The overlapping remnants, a connecting gas filament, and the availability of data from Fermi and other facilities motivated us to delve into this complex but little-studied region,” said co-author Marianne Lemoine-Goumard, an astrophysicist at the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS) based at the University of Bordeaux. “With Fermi’s LAT instrument, we found gamma-ray emission associated with accelerated protons in the northern part of the fainter remnant. If both remnants are interacting with the same structure, then they must share a common distance from us.”

The team concludes the remnants lie about 6,000 light-years away, their explosion centers are separated by roughly 40 light-years projected onto the plane of the sky, and the original stars may have been 20 or more times the Sun’s mass.

Estimates of the remnants’ ages vary widely, but the team concludes that the age of the Jellyfish Nebula is 8,000 to 9,000 years, while G189.6+3.3 is between 20,000 to 110,000 years old. This means the delay between the explosions could have extended for up to 100,000 years.

In addition, the team conducted computer simulations of a million massive binary systems. They show that systems where the stars orbit close enough to exchange matter and interact during their lives can readily produce dual supernova explosions with similar separations and time delays as those found for the remnants. The team also estimated that the chance of randomly encountering this combination of observed spatial alignment and compatible distances to be less than 1%, strongly supporting a physical association.

“The evidence we’ve compiled — including observations across the spectrum, the chemical and physical properties of the remnants, simulations, and more — paints a compelling picture of a dual supernova event,” said Michailidis.

This study identifies a unique possible example of a binary system where both stars exploded as supernovae and left behind separate, detectable supernova remnants. Astronomers think that most massive stars form in binary or multiple-star systems. The Jellyfish Nebula/G189.6+3.3 complex offers astronomers a rare opportunity to study how massive binary stars evolve, exchange matter, explode, and experience velocity changes — called kicks — induced by the supernova blast. It also provides a powerful new laboratory for understanding how coupled supernova remnants behave, including how they accelerate particles, generate gamma rays, and shape their surrounding environments.

“Fermi’s gamma-ray observations of supernova remnants continue to reveal the dynamic lives of stars,” said Elizabeth Hays, the Fermi project scientist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. “We can now connect the glowing remains of two massive stars to a powerful pair that evolved together over thousands of years.”

By Francis Reddy
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.

Media Contact:
Claire Andreoli
301-286-1940
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.

The post NASA’s Fermi Mission Uncovers Possible Sibling Supernova Remnants appeared first on NASA Science.

The aftermath of a supernova, a stellar explosion, is usually a slowly fading cloud of hot gas. So when astronomers pointed NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory at the nearby galaxy Messier 83 (M83), they did not expect to find a population of supernova remnants, or the debris from these explosions, showing dramatic changes in their brightness. The new results were presented at the American Astronomical Society meeting in Pasadena, California, and published in The Astrophysical Journal.

The galaxy M83, located about 15 million light-years from Earth, is forming stars at a high rate. Researchers analyzed 14 years of Chandra data of the galaxy, spanning 2000 to 2014.

Using this extensive set of data, the researchers caught surprising variations in the X-ray brightness of sources previously identified as supernova remnants. The researchers expected supernova remnants older than a century or so to fade gradually in X-rays, but not change dramatically in brightness.

The team found that roughly half of the 22 X-ray sources associated with supernova remnants in their sample showed changes in X-ray brightness over the 14-year span of observations — a result that was completely unexpected.

“We knew that individual X-ray sources could vary dramatically,” said Andrea Prestwich, of the Catholic University of America who led the study. “But finding that so many supernova remnants were behaving this way was a real surprise. Something unusual is going on in these objects. Pinpointing the cause remains a challenge, as M83’s distance limits the detail we can observe.”

One of the 22 variable supernova remnants has a straightforward explanation: SN 1957D, the debris from a supernova first observed nearly 70 years ago, is ramming into material surrounding the explosion site, producing the observed X-ray flares. But this cannot explain the rest of the sample. There is no evidence to suggest that all 22 remnants were formed within the last century. Something else must be driving the variability.

The most likely explanation is that the team has uncovered a population of stellar survivors stars that lived through their partner’s destruction in a supernova explosion. In this scenario, each variable X-ray source began as a pair of massive stars orbiting each other. The more massive star collapsed and exploded as a supernova, leaving behind a black hole or ultra-dense neutron star. Its companion survived.

“It may be that this galaxy contains a collection of supernova remnants where one massive star survives the supernova and becomes locked into an orbit with a black hole or neutron star,” said co-author Michael McCollough of the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian (CfA). “The neutron star or black hole can then start pulling material from the massive star’s surface.”

That infalling material is superheated by the intense gravitational pull, producing the X-rays Chandra detects. These types of systems, known as high-mass X-ray binaries (HMXBs), are among the most variable X-ray sources in the universe. Researchers say they may be the cause of the variations seen in M83’s supernova remnants.

Astronomers have known about HMXBs for decades, but the difference with this group in M83 is their connection to supernova remnants. Previously, only a handful of supernova remnants associated with HMXBs had been identified across observations of all galaxies. It is unprecedented to find more than 20 strong candidates in just one galaxy.

The authors found that the variable supernova remnants are in regions with higher concentrations of massive stars than in other parts of the galaxy, increasing the chances of a link between the remnants and HMXBs.

There is another possible explanation: Instead of pulling in material from a companion star, the black hole or neutron star may be recapturing some of the material blasted outward by the original explosion.

“This could be an example of cosmic recycling, where debris from the explosion falls back onto the very object the supernova created,” said co-author Roy Kilgard of Wesleyan University. “And it’s quite possible that both explanations are at play — different sources in our sample may have different origins.”

These results are not unique to M83. A follow-up study of the nearby star-forming galaxy M51 by Zoe Hoiland of Vassar College and Kilgard has uncovered a similar population of variable X-ray sources associated with supernova remnants, suggesting that such systems may be a feature of galaxies undergoing vigorous star formation.

The Chandra data for M83 began with single observations in 2000 and 2001, followed by 10 observations from 2010 to 2011 and another observation in 2014.

NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, manages the Chandra program. The Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory’s Chandra X-ray Center controls science operations from Cambridge, Massachusetts, and flight operations from Burlington, Massachusetts.

Visual Description

This release features a composite image of the nearby galaxy Messier 83, and short timelapse videos of two curious supernova remnants hidden inside.

In the composite image, Messier 83, or M83, is shown to have a spiral structure, viewed straight on. At the center is a brilliant white and yellow pool of light. From that light, spiral arms of hot pink cloud corkscrew out in wide, sweeping arches. The galaxy is covered in a faint grey haze, and flecked with red, green, blue, white, and yellow dots.

In an annotated version of the composite image, two tiny dots to our lower right of center are highlighted by white circles. These are two of the supernova remnants being considered by researchers. Each is examined further in a separate timelapse video.

Over a 14-year period from 2000 to 2014, astronomers pointed NASA’s X-ray observatory at the M83 galaxy. They discovered that about half of the X-ray sources believed to be supernova remnants, the aftermath of stellar explosions, were exhibiting dramatic changes in brightness. This result was entirely unexpected.

Those changes in brightness are highlighted in the timelapse videos. In each video, a series of static images flashes by, focused on one of the two X-ray sources once believed to be supernova remnants. In the videos, the X-ray sources appear as bright blue blobs with glowing cores. But in each image, taken months or years apart, the shapes change, as does the intensity of the blue color, and the brightness of the core. By presenting the substantively different images of the same objects one after another in quick succession, short timelapse videos are created.

The most likely explanation for the changes in brightness is that the team has uncovered a population of stellar survivors, stars that lived through an orbiting partner’s destruction in a supernova explosion. Material is being pulled from the surviving star onto the black hole or neutron star that formed in the supernova, a process known to cause rapid changes in X-ray brightness.

Read more from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory

To learn more about NASA’s Chandra mission, visit:

https://science.nasa.gov/chandra

https://chandra.si.edu

News Media Contact

Megan Watzke
Chandra X-ray Center
Cambridge, Mass.
617-496-7998
mwatzke@cfa.harvard.edu

Joel Wallace
Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, Alabama
256-544-0034
joel.w.wallace@nasa.gov

The aftermath of a supernova, a stellar explosion, is usually a slowly fading cloud of hot gas. So when astronomers pointed NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory at the nearby galaxy Messier 83 (M83), they did not expect to find a population of supernova remnants, or the debris from these explosions, showing dramatic changes in their brightness. The new results were presented at the American Astronomical Society meeting in Pasadena, California, and published in The Astrophysical Journal.

The galaxy M83, located about 15 million light-years from Earth, is forming stars at a high rate. Researchers analyzed 14 years of Chandra data of the galaxy, spanning 2000 to 2014.

Using this extensive set of data, the researchers caught surprising variations in the X-ray brightness of sources previously identified as supernova remnants. The researchers expected supernova remnants older than a century or so to fade gradually in X-rays, but not change dramatically in brightness.

The team found that roughly half of the 22 X-ray sources associated with supernova remnants in their sample showed changes in X-ray brightness over the 14-year span of observations — a result that was completely unexpected.

“We knew that individual X-ray sources could vary dramatically,” said Andrea Prestwich, of the Catholic University of America who led the study. “But finding that so many supernova remnants were behaving this way was a real surprise. Something unusual is going on in these objects. Pinpointing the cause remains a challenge, as M83’s distance limits the detail we can observe.”

One of the 22 variable supernova remnants has a straightforward explanation: SN 1957D, the debris from a supernova first observed nearly 70 years ago, is ramming into material surrounding the explosion site, producing the observed X-ray flares. But this cannot explain the rest of the sample. There is no evidence to suggest that all 22 remnants were formed within the last century. Something else must be driving the variability.

The most likely explanation is that the team has uncovered a population of stellar survivors stars that lived through their partner’s destruction in a supernova explosion. In this scenario, each variable X-ray source began as a pair of massive stars orbiting each other. The more massive star collapsed and exploded as a supernova, leaving behind a black hole or ultra-dense neutron star. Its companion survived.

“It may be that this galaxy contains a collection of supernova remnants where one massive star survives the supernova and becomes locked into an orbit with a black hole or neutron star,” said co-author Michael McCollough of the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian (CfA). “The neutron star or black hole can then start pulling material from the massive star’s surface.”

That infalling material is superheated by the intense gravitational pull, producing the X-rays Chandra detects. These types of systems, known as high-mass X-ray binaries (HMXBs), are among the most variable X-ray sources in the universe. Researchers say they may be the cause of the variations seen in M83’s supernova remnants.

Astronomers have known about HMXBs for decades, but the difference with this group in M83 is their connection to supernova remnants. Previously, only a handful of supernova remnants associated with HMXBs had been identified across observations of all galaxies. It is unprecedented to find more than 20 strong candidates in just one galaxy.

The authors found that the variable supernova remnants are in regions with higher concentrations of massive stars than in other parts of the galaxy, increasing the chances of a link between the remnants and HMXBs.

There is another possible explanation: Instead of pulling in material from a companion star, the black hole or neutron star may be recapturing some of the material blasted outward by the original explosion.

“This could be an example of cosmic recycling, where debris from the explosion falls back onto the very object the supernova created,” said co-author Roy Kilgard of Wesleyan University. “And it’s quite possible that both explanations are at play — different sources in our sample may have different origins.”

These results are not unique to M83. A follow-up study of the nearby star-forming galaxy M51 by Zoe Hoiland of Vassar College and Kilgard has uncovered a similar population of variable X-ray sources associated with supernova remnants, suggesting that such systems may be a feature of galaxies undergoing vigorous star formation.

The Chandra data for M83 began with single observations in 2000 and 2001, followed by 10 observations from 2010 to 2011 and another observation in 2014.

NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, manages the Chandra program. The Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory’s Chandra X-ray Center controls science operations from Cambridge, Massachusetts, and flight operations from Burlington, Massachusetts.

Visual Description

This release features a composite image of the nearby galaxy Messier 83, and short timelapse videos of two curious supernova remnants hidden inside.

In the composite image, Messier 83, or M83, is shown to have a spiral structure, viewed straight on. At the center is a brilliant white and yellow pool of light. From that light, spiral arms of hot pink cloud corkscrew out in wide, sweeping arches. The galaxy is covered in a faint grey haze, and flecked with red, green, blue, white, and yellow dots.

In an annotated version of the composite image, two tiny dots to our lower right of center are highlighted by white circles. These are two of the supernova remnants being considered by researchers. Each is examined further in a separate timelapse video.

Over a 14-year period from 2000 to 2014, astronomers pointed NASA’s X-ray observatory at the M83 galaxy. They discovered that about half of the X-ray sources believed to be supernova remnants, the aftermath of stellar explosions, were exhibiting dramatic changes in brightness. This result was entirely unexpected.

Those changes in brightness are highlighted in the timelapse videos. In each video, a series of static images flashes by, focused on one of the two X-ray sources once believed to be supernova remnants. In the videos, the X-ray sources appear as bright blue blobs with glowing cores. But in each image, taken months or years apart, the shapes change, as does the intensity of the blue color, and the brightness of the core. By presenting the substantively different images of the same objects one after another in quick succession, short timelapse videos are created.

The most likely explanation for the changes in brightness is that the team has uncovered a population of stellar survivors, stars that lived through an orbiting partner’s destruction in a supernova explosion. Material is being pulled from the surviving star onto the black hole or neutron star that formed in the supernova, a process known to cause rapid changes in X-ray brightness.

Read more from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory

To learn more about NASA’s Chandra mission, visit:

https://science.nasa.gov/chandra

https://chandra.si.edu

News Media Contact

Megan Watzke
Chandra X-ray Center
Cambridge, Mass.
617-496-7998
mwatzke@cfa.harvard.edu

Joel Wallace
Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, Alabama
256-544-0034
joel.w.wallace@nasa.gov

The post NASA’s Chandra Finds Unexpected Fireworks in Aftermath of Stellar Explosions appeared first on NASA Science.

Using data from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory, astronomers may have found a supernova remnant in an intriguing neighborhood in the middle of our galaxy. A paper describing these new findings published in The Astrophysical Journal.

Supernova remnants are the expanding remains of exploded stars and provide elements – like iron, oxygen, and silicon – that are critical for the formation of planets and for life as we know it to form and flourish.

This new supernova remnant, if confirmed, would be one of the closest ever discovered to the supermassive black hole at the central region of the Milky Way galaxy, an exotic region crammed with massive stars, long threads of magnetic fields and dense clouds of gas orbiting rapidly around the Galactic Center.

A new composite image of this region contains X-rays from Chandra and ESA’s (European Space Agency’s) XMM-Newton mission (shown in blue) as well as radio data from the MeerKAT telescope (shown in red) in South Africa. These have been combined with an optical image from the Pan-STARRS telescopes in Hawaii (red, green, and blue). The plane of the galaxy runs horizontally from left to right in the image, and the central black hole is off to the left of the image.

The evidence for the new supernova remnant, located about 26,000 light-years from Earth, comes from X-ray data from Chandra and XMM-Newton. The X-ray data reveals a “blob” of X-ray emission that may come from the remains of a massive star that self-destructed as a supernova, buried within the larger cloud of expanding gas.

The location of this suspected supernova remnant in the image is labeled with a circle.

It is in a bubble of gas that has had electrons stripped away from hydrogen – called an “H II region” – surrounding a massive, young star. This bubble is a bright source of radio emission called Sagittarius C.

If this is indeed a supernova remnant, then it is expanding at about two million miles per hour and is at least about 1,700 years old. Previously, observations with NASA’s now-retired SOFIA (Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy) mission had shown evidence for an expanding shell of gas surrounding Sagittarius C. This gave astronomers a hint that a stellar explosion had occurred in the same spot.

The long filaments seen in the radio image are caused by energetic particles travelling along magnetic fields that are mostly directed perpendicular to the plane of the galaxy.

The nuclear fusion engines of stars create elements from hydrogen and helium that were abundant at the beginning of the universe. When stars explode at the end of their lives as supernovae, they send these newly synthesized elements into interstellar space and provide material for the next generation of stars and planets.

The team of astronomers searched the X-ray data for signs of increased amounts of key elements in the remnant, which would have been caused by the stellar explosion blasting them into space. While they did not see an enhancement, this could imply that the stellar debris has already mixed with the surrounding gas.

An alternative explanation for the X-ray blob is that the hot gas comes from a collection of massive stars in the region. The authors of the recent study don’t think this explanation is likely, because the X-ray emission from the blob is more than ten times brighter than the X-ray emission of large, known stellar clusters with bright, massive stars.

An additional image shows data from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope added to the X-ray and radio data. The light blue color represents infrared light from gas in the H II region, and the darker blue depicts X-rays from the supernova remnant candidate, on the right side of the image. X-rays near the center of the image are associated with the H II region, possibly caused by material blown away by massive stars that has heated gas to millions of degrees, producing X-rays.

The study’s authors are Zhenlin Zhu and Mark Morris of the University of California, Los Angeles; Gabriele Ponti of Italy’s National Institute for Astrophysics; and Ping Zhou of Nanjing University in China.

NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, manages the Chandra program. The Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory’s Chandra X-ray Center controls science operations from Cambridge, Massachusetts, and flight operations from Burlington, Massachusetts.

Visual Description

This release features a composite image of colorful, overlapping clouds, which suggests to astronomers that a supernova remnant may be buried in gas near the center of our Milky Way galaxy.

Set against a backdrop packed with distant stars and other specks of light are two distinct, overlapping clouds. The larger, visually dominant cloud, is red and multifaceted. It has an irregular shape, and features patches of different textures, including pockets that resemble wispy smoke, tangles of faint red veins, and clear streaking lines. This large cloud of expanding gas represents radio data from the MeerKAT telescope in South Africa.

Overlapping with that red cloud is a cloudy blue blob representing X-ray data from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory and ESA’s XMM-Newton. Astronomers suggest that this blue blob of X-ray emissions is the remains of a massive star destroyed by a supernova.

Read more from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory

To learn more about NASA’s Chandra mission, visit:

https://science.nasa.gov/chandra

https://chandra.si.edu

News Media Contact

Megan Watzke
Chandra X-ray Center
Cambridge, Mass.
617-496-7998
mwatzke@cfa.harvard.edu

Joel Wallace
Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, Alabama
256-544-0034
joel.w.wallace@nasa.gov

The post NASA’s Chandra Discovers Possible Supernova Remnant in Galactic Center appeared first on NASA Science.

Using data from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory, astronomers may have found a supernova remnant in an intriguing neighborhood in the middle of our galaxy. A paper describing these new findings published in The Astrophysical Journal.

Supernova remnants are the expanding remains of exploded stars and provide elements – like iron, oxygen, and silicon – that are critical for the formation of planets and for life as we know it to form and flourish.

This new supernova remnant, if confirmed, would be one of the closest ever discovered to the supermassive black hole at the central region of the Milky Way galaxy, an exotic region crammed with massive stars, long threads of magnetic fields and dense clouds of gas orbiting rapidly around the Galactic Center.

A new composite image of this region contains X-rays from Chandra and ESA’s (European Space Agency’s) XMM-Newton mission (shown in blue) as well as radio data from the MeerKAT telescope (shown in red) in South Africa. These have been combined with an optical image from the Pan-STARRS telescopes in Hawaii (red, green, and blue). The plane of the galaxy runs horizontally from left to right in the image, and the central black hole is off to the left of the image.

The evidence for the new supernova remnant, located about 26,000 light-years from Earth, comes from X-ray data from Chandra and XMM-Newton. The X-ray data reveals a “blob” of X-ray emission that may come from the remains of a massive star that self-destructed as a supernova, buried within the larger cloud of expanding gas.

The location of this suspected supernova remnant in the image is labeled with a circle.

It is in a bubble of gas that has had electrons stripped away from hydrogen – called an “H II region” – surrounding a massive, young star. This bubble is a bright source of radio emission called Sagittarius C.

If this is indeed a supernova remnant, then it is expanding at about two million miles per hour and is at least about 1,700 years old. Previously, observations with NASA’s now-retired SOFIA (Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy) mission had shown evidence for an expanding shell of gas surrounding Sagittarius C. This gave astronomers a hint that a stellar explosion had occurred in the same spot.

The long filaments seen in the radio image are caused by energetic particles travelling along magnetic fields that are mostly directed perpendicular to the plane of the galaxy.

The nuclear fusion engines of stars create elements from hydrogen and helium that were abundant at the beginning of the universe. When stars explode at the end of their lives as supernovae, they send these newly synthesized elements into interstellar space and provide material for the next generation of stars and planets.

The team of astronomers searched the X-ray data for signs of increased amounts of key elements in the remnant, which would have been caused by the stellar explosion blasting them into space. While they did not see an enhancement, this could imply that the stellar debris has already mixed with the surrounding gas.

An alternative explanation for the X-ray blob is that the hot gas comes from a collection of massive stars in the region. The authors of the recent study don’t think this explanation is likely, because the X-ray emission from the blob is more than ten times brighter than the X-ray emission of large, known stellar clusters with bright, massive stars.

An additional image shows data from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope added to the X-ray and radio data. The light blue color represents infrared light from gas in the H II region, and the darker blue depicts X-rays from the supernova remnant candidate, on the right side of the image. X-rays near the center of the image are associated with the H II region, possibly caused by material blown away by massive stars that has heated gas to millions of degrees, producing X-rays.

The study’s authors are Zhenlin Zhu and Mark Morris of the University of California, Los Angeles; Gabriele Ponti of Italy’s National Institute for Astrophysics; and Ping Zhou of Nanjing University in China.

NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, manages the Chandra program. The Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory’s Chandra X-ray Center controls science operations from Cambridge, Massachusetts, and flight operations from Burlington, Massachusetts.

Visual Description

This release features a composite image of colorful, overlapping clouds, which suggests to astronomers that a supernova remnant may be buried in gas near the center of our Milky Way galaxy.

Set against a backdrop packed with distant stars and other specks of light are two distinct, overlapping clouds. The larger, visually dominant cloud, is red and multifaceted. It has an irregular shape, and features patches of different textures, including pockets that resemble wispy smoke, tangles of faint red veins, and clear streaking lines. This large cloud of expanding gas represents radio data from the MeerKAT telescope in South Africa.

Overlapping with that red cloud is a cloudy blue blob representing X-ray data from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory and ESA’s XMM-Newton. Astronomers suggest that this blue blob of X-ray emissions is the remains of a massive star destroyed by a supernova.

Read more from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory

To learn more about NASA’s Chandra mission, visit:

https://science.nasa.gov/chandra

https://chandra.si.edu

News Media Contact

Megan Watzke
Chandra X-ray Center
Cambridge, Mass.
617-496-7998
mwatzke@cfa.harvard.edu

Joel Wallace
Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, Alabama
256-544-0034
joel.w.wallace@nasa.gov

Editor’s Note: Astrobites is a graduate-student-run organization that digests astrophysical literature for undergraduate students. As part of the partnership between the AAS and astrobites, we occasionally repost astrobites content here at AAS Nova. We hope you enjoy this post from astrobites; the original can be viewed at astrobites.org.

Title: Supernova Ia Remnants with M-Dwarf Surviving Companions
Authors: Kuo-Chuan Pan (潘國全), Pilar Ruiz-Lapuente, and Jonay I. González Hernández
First Author’s Institution: National Tsing Hua University
Status: Published in ApJ

Type Ia supernovae are important tools astronomers use to measure distances in space. Despite their important role as “standardizable candles,” their origins remain hotly debated. It’s long been theorized that a Type Ia supernova can develop from one of two pathways: the single-degenerate channel or the double-degenerate channel. In the single-degenerate channel, a white dwarf and a non-degenerate star (such as a red giant or main-sequence star like our Sun) orbit each other in a close binary system. The white dwarf accretes material from the outer surface of the non-degenerate star until it reaches a critical mass and explodes. The double-degenerate channel begins instead with two white dwarfs orbiting each other. Most explosion mechanisms from this channel result in the complete obliteration of the secondary, less-massive white dwarf. However, one theoretical explosion mechanism, called the dynamically driven double-degenerate double-detonation (D⁶) channel, might allow the secondary companion star to survive an explosion from a double-degenerate Type Ia supernova.

Generally, due to the immense energy from a supernova explosion, we expect these surviving companion stars to be “kicked” away from the blasts at high velocities. Fortunately, astronomers have found evidence of these surviving companion stars. As covered in a previous Astrobite, three hypervelocity white dwarfs have been found in Gaia data and traced back to the locations of double-degenerate Type Ia supernovae. Given the prevalence of Type Ia supernovae, however, astronomers are led to question why we haven’t seen many more of these candidates. It’s additionally important to wonder what similar “runaway” companions might look like for the single-degenerate channel.

Recent observations by the Gaia spacecraft near the supernova remnant G272.2-3.2 show an M-dwarf star, MV-G272, with an unusually high velocity around 240 km/s and a trajectory tracing back to the center of the supernova remnant. Is it possible for this M dwarf to be the runaway companion to the remnant’s original supernova? The authors of today’s article look at simulations of potential companion stars from single-degenerate Type Ia supernovae and compare their results to this observed potential companion candidate.

Because this work focuses on the potential for M-dwarf companions, the authors explored a range of simulated companion-star masses and radii characteristic of M dwarfs: 0.5, 0.6, and 0.7 solar mass and 0.396, 0.454, and 0.483 solar radius, respectively. To make these models, they used the stellar evolution code Modules for Experiments in Stellar Astrophysics (MESA) to construct and evolve a number of simulated stars with these specifications.

After setting up the models in MESA, they used the magnetohydrodynamics code FLASH to perform 2D and 3D simulations of the supernova explosion and the subsequent impact of the exploding star’s ejecta (or hot material) on its M-dwarf companion. After the explosion and impact were modeled, the companion star’s evolution was further followed in MESA.

Figure 1 shows the density of the supernova’s ejecta, or exploding material, as it impacts the companion star. (You can think of this figure as if you were looking at the companion star out in space.) After roughly 100 seconds, you can see a bow shock develop around the top of the companion (or the “front” of the star) as it wraps around the companion. This impact causes significant compression of the companion star and rips away upwards of 50% the companion’s mass. The impact of this shock is what gives the companion star its “kick,” sending it hurtling through space.

Because the authors explored a range of initial companion masses and distances between the primary and companion star, their results show some range. Figure 2 shows two important results: the evolution of the companion’s mass before and after the explosion (left plot), and the evolution of the companion’s kick velocity (right plot). The dip in mass around 100 seconds (10² s) indicates the impact of the bow shock. Even though the simulations model companions with a relatively narrow mass range (0.3–0.7 solar mass), there is considerable variation in the final masses after explosion. For example, the initial 0.5-solar-mass model ends up with anywhere between 0.07 solar mass (just 14% of its initial mass) and almost its full initial mass of 0.5 solar mass, depending on the distance between the companion and its exploding star. The results from this work generally show, predictably, that a companion closer to its primary star gets a bigger kick in velocity. These “kicks” range from about 50 km/s to 150 km/s. When added to the system’s initial velocity in space, it brings the total velocity of these companions into the 150–200 km/s range. This result is generally well aligned with the observed velocity of MV-G272, which was roughly 240 km/s.

Notably, runaway companion stars of these Type Ia supernovae seem to retain information from the initial explosion. Given the final velocities of these companions, astronomers might be able to figure out the companion’s initial mass and trace back its trajectory to the system it originated from. Overall, the fact that MV-G272 has a trajectory that tracks back to the center of a supernova remnant makes it a good companion candidate. These results support the feasibility of M-dwarf runaway companions from single-degenerate Type Ia supernova systems. Now that we know what these companions might look like — and how fast they can be going — astronomers can hopefully better search for these high-velocity stars in the future.

Original astrobite edited by Catherine Slaughter.

About the author, Mckenzie Ferrari:

I’m currently a PhD student in the geophysical sciences program at the University of Chicago. While I now study the atmosphere and oceans of Earth, most of my previous research focused on simulations of Type Ia supernovae and galaxy formation and evolution. In my free time, I foster cats for a local organization, enjoy cooking, and can often be found running along Lake Michigan.

The post I Survived a Type Ia Supernova, and All I Got Was This Kick Velocity appeared first on AAS Nova.

In 1999–2000, the Hubble Space Telescope captured what was then the most detailed image ever taken of the Crab Nebula. In the quarter-century since the release of that image, the nebula — the remnant of a star observed to explode as a supernova in July 1054 — has been slowly unfurling and changing as the ejected stellar material expands into space. Now, as reported in a research article by William Blair (Johns Hopkins University) and collaborators, astronomers have turned Hubble’s inquisitive eye toward the Crab Nebula once again. One of the new images is shown above (click for the full view!). By comparing the new and old Hubble images, Blair’s team uncovered dramatic changes in the nebula’s intricate filamentary structure. These changes are due to the nebula’s three-dimensional expansion as well as evolution in the density of its knots and filaments. To learn more about the new Hubble portrait of the Crab Nebula, be sure to check out the full article linked below.

Citation

“The Crab Nebula Revisited Using HST/WFC3,” William P. Blair et al 2026 ApJ 997 81. doi:10.3847/1538-4357/ae2adc

The post Featured Image: Hubble Revisits the Crab Nebula appeared first on AAS Nova.

Beautiful bubbles of hot ionized gas, supernova remnants trace the dying days of massive stars. A recent study uses the Chandra X-ray Observatory to detail the motion and understand the origins of one supernova remnant.

Retracing Supernova Remnants

Massive stars, about 8 solar masses or larger, will end their short lives in violent core-collapse supernovae. These explosions barrel into any surrounding interstellar medium, carving out low-density cavities and blowing material outward. Appearing as a bubble or shell of hot gas, a supernova remnant carries the signatures of the type of star that produced it and the ways that star shaped its environment throughout its life. 

Nearby, in the Large Magellanic Cloud, is the 2,500-year-old supernova remnant N132D — the most X-ray luminous supernova remnant within the Local Group. Though N132D’s size, likely progenitor mass, and chemical composition are well constrained, astronomers have yet to nail down the velocity of the X-ray shock front — the outer edge of the supernova remnant that rams into the interstellar medium. This measurement is critical to understanding the local conditions the supernova first encountered and how its expansion will continue to impact the interstellar medium over time.

Chandra Observations of N132D

Determining the shock front velocity requires astronomers to focus on the thin outer edge of the soaring supernova remnant — how do we measure the motion of such a narrow strip of gas? X-ray spectroscopy of N132D yields a measurement from a single epoch of observations, but it cannot isolate the narrow shock front, making a reliable velocity measurement difficult to attain.

Circumventing the challenges of spectral analyses, Xi Long (University of Hong Kong) and collaborators used two sets of X-ray observations of N132D from the Chandra X-ray Observatory taken about 14.5 years apart to measure the motion of the shock front across the sky over time. This measurement, known as proper motion, compares the location of the foreground supernova remnant to stationary background stars to estimate its angular speed. 

The authors focus on small regions on the very edge of the supernova shock front, six northern and eight southern, to carefully measure the motion of the shock between the two sets of observations. In separating the shock front into smaller regions, the authors can determine any variations in speed along the shock front. The southern edge of N132D moves with the same expansion rate of 1,620 km/s. The northern edge has an average expansion rate of 3,820 km/s, but its speed is more varied, which isn’t unexpected given its blown-out appearance.

Comparing to Prior Studies

In addition to determining the velocity of the forward shock, the authors model the evolution of the supernova remnant to estimate the initial conditions of N132D including progenitor star mass, explosion energy, and ejecta mass. Their results agree with other studies that suggested N132D originated from a roughly 15-solar-mass star that exploded 2,500 years ago into a low-density cavity. 

This study showcases the unique ability of Chandra’s high-resolution instruments to carefully measure the evolution of supernova remnants, and further studies will continue to determine the detailed characteristics of supernova remnants across the Local Group.

Citation

“Chandra Large Project Observations of the Supernova Remnant N132D: Measuring the Expansion of the Forward Shock,” Xi Long et al 2025 ApJ 993 136. doi:10.3847/1538-4357/ae07c7

The post Chandra Spies a Supernova Shock Front Speeding Along appeared first on AAS Nova.

Out to what distance can we resolve the structure of a supernova remnant in the infrared? Until recently, it was only possible to do so for remnants in the Milky Way and the Magellanic Clouds, but JWST has now extended that capability to other nearby galaxies. In a recent research article, Sumit Sarbadhicary (The Ohio State University) and collaborators used JWST to study supernova remnants in the Triangulum Galaxy (Messier 33), a small spiral galaxy that is 2.7 million light-years away. The study area contained 40 supernova remnants that were previously identified at other wavelengths. The image above shows a portion of the galaxy’s southern spiral arm, where each white circle indicates a known supernova remnant. Infrared observations of supernova remnants are critical for understanding the physics of the interstellar medium and the composition, formation, and destruction of dust. To learn more about how JWST has pushed the limits of our search for extragalactic supernova remnants, and for details on each of the remnants detected by JWST in the Triangulum Galaxy, be sure to check out the full research article linked below.

Citation

“A First Look at Spatially Resolved Infrared Supernova Remnants in M33 with JWST,” Sumit K. Sarbadhicary et al 2025 ApJ 989 138. doi:10.3847/1538-4357/adec7a

The post Featured Image: JWST Expands the Search for Extragalactic Supernova Remnants appeared first on AAS Nova.

Researchers estimate that there are at least 1,000 supernova remnants in our galaxy that should be visible at radio wavelengths today — but so far, only a few hundred have been confirmed. Embarking on a search for the missing supernova remnants, Brianna Ball (University of Alberta) and collaborators used radio observations from the Evolutionary Map of the Universe (EMU) and Polarization Sky Survey of the Universe’s Magnetism (POSSUM) surveys. The image above presents a portion of that search, overlaying the positions of various objects of interest atop a background of radio continuum emission from EMU. Several types of objects are indicated: previously known supernova remnants (red), previously identified candidate remnants (orange), new candidates (white), known H II regions (cyan), and young pulsars (green stars). So far, the team has newly confirmed 14 supernova remnants, six of which were identified for the first time thanks to EMU and POSSUM, and 37 new candidate remnants. As the EMU and POSSUM surveys continue, the authors expect that as many as 400 candidate supernova remnants may be spotted. If these candidates are confirmed, it would nearly close the gap between expected and observed numbers of supernova remnants in the regions covered by these surveys. To learn more about this search for supernova remnants, be sure to check out the full research article linked below.

Citation

“A Catalog of Galactic Supernova Remnants and Supernova Remnant Candidates from the EMU/POSSUM Radio Sky Surveys. I.,” B. D. Ball et al 2025 ApJ 988 75. doi:10.3847/1538-4357/addc63

The post Featured Image: Hunting for Missing Supernova Remnants with EMU and POSSUM appeared first on AAS Nova.

With a measurement 15 years in the making, astronomers have pinned down the path of a neutron star launched by a collapsing star. This finding helps to explain how neutron stars are “kicked” into space by supernovae.

Just for Kicks

When massive stars reach the end of their lives, they expire in a final, fantastic cosmic display: a core-collapse supernova. These events can leave behind remnants called neutron stars, which are composed of highly compressed neutrons arranged in a sphere roughly as wide as the island of Manhattan is long.

Many neutron stars have been observed to zip through space at hundreds of kilometers per second, which suggests that these stars get a “kick” when they’re born in a supernova. However, the details of this kick are not yet clear. Are neutron stars launched into space in the opposite direction from the material ejected in the explosion, as some studies suggest? Or is the neutron star’s motion determined by the burst of neutrinos that carries off most of the supernova’s energy, as other studies hint?

Worth the Wait

To answer these questions, astronomers must compare the velocities of young neutron stars to the movement of their associated supernova remnants. In a recent research article, Tyler Holland-Ashford (NASA Goddard Space Flight Center) and collaborators measured the motion of the neutron star affiliated with the G18.9–1.1 supernova remnant, using Chandra observations made 15 years apart in September 2009 and July 2024.

Making this measurement is trickier than it sounds, requiring more finesse than simply charting the location of the neutron star at different times. Holland-Ashford’s team used measurements from the ultra-precise star-mapping Gaia spacecraft to account for the proper motions of other sources in the images and to put the observations from the two time periods into the same frame of reference. After these adjustments, they measured the proper motion of the neutron star to be 24.7 milliarcseconds per year.

Because the distance to the supernova remnant is uncertain, this proper motion could correspond to a range of transverse velocities. For distance estimates of 6,800 and 12,400 light-years, this puts the neutron star’s transverse velocity at 264 or 474 km/s, respectively.

A Distinct Offset

What does this velocity tell us about the kick this neutron star received at birth? To probe the origin of the kick, the team first used the neutron star’s measured velocity and the likely age of the supernova remnant to trace the neutron star’s trajectory back to its birth site. This showed that the neutron star’s birthplace is offset from the center of the supernova remnant by several arcseconds, though both locations fall along the trajectory set by the neutron star’s motion. This suggests that the ejected stellar material and the newborn material were kicked in opposite directions by the supernova, most likely by a theorized “conservation-of-momentum-like” process.

Currently, Chandra is the only X-ray observatory with fine enough resolution to make the kind of measurement needed in this study. Luckily, Chandra’s observations of neutron stars stretch back to 1999, and combining this wealth of data with sensitive measurements from future high-resolution X-ray instruments should provide the long time baselines needed to trace the trajectories of more neutron stars and further explore the origins of neutron star kicks.

Citation

“Proper Motion of the Neutron Star in the Supernova Remnant G18.9–1.1,” Tyler Holland-Ashford et al 2025 ApJ 988 218. doi:10.3847/1538-4357/adeb7e

The post Get a Kick Out of This: Researchers Waited 15 Years to Measure a Neutron Star’s Journey appeared first on AAS Nova.