COW Group Picture Gallery

In the course of our work, we occasionally generate spectacular images. Not only do they have important scientific value, but are also aesthetically pleasing. Here is a sample of our images.

X-ray image of MSH 15-52. Description: This supernova remnant was a puzzle to astronomers for a while. It's strange shape made it hard to identify, but the discovery of a pulsar (the lower bright spot) helped secure its classification as a supernova remnant. The pulsar, PSR 1509-58, is one of the youngest pulsars known (about 1600 years old), and it has the strongest magnetic field and the highest period derivative of any pulsar (i.e. it's slowing down faster than any other pulsar). The image is from the ROSAT Position Sensitive Proportional Counter (PSPC). [CG]

Image of an X-ray jet from the Vela Pulsar. Description: A jet of material over 20 light years long is clearly being ejected downward by the Vela pulsar, marked by a cross, in this ROSAT PSPC image. Scientists who study pulsars have long known that pulsars are rapidly spinning, high density objects. They also know that the pulsar's rate of rotation is gradually slowing -- but they don't know where the rotational energy is going! We suggest (Nature vol 375, p. 40), that the Vela pulsar is energizing particles which stream out along the pulsar rotation axis. By our estimates, the mechanical power required to power the jet nicely matches the rotational energy loss rate of the pulsar. Image dimensions: 2 degrees square. Energy range: 0.9-2.4 kilo electron volts (keV). [CM]

Soft X-ray image of the Vela Pulsar's surroundings. Description: This is the lower energy (0.1-0.7 keV) companion of the above "jet" image. It is remarkable that the pictures of the two different energy bands are so strikingly different. The primary reason for this is that filamentary shock structures which have formed inside the Vela supernova remnant emit mostly low-energy X-ray photons. Most of the structures you see here (aside from the pulsar at the center) are shock filaments. [CM]

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