Thursday, January 17, 2013

Pulsar Jet

When a star supernovas, it sends a blast wave of matter into space. Some of these stars then collapse in on themselves, hollow shells of what they once were. Those composed of almost entirely of neutrons are called neutron stars, the remnants of a one time giant. At times these neutron stars hurl out jets of matter as they spin upon themselves, moving ever faster in a dizzying ride to their own demise. These stars are called pulsars.

Nasa caught one in a beautiful piece of footage. This star is spinning around once every 11 seconds (or some such) and hurling a massive jet of gas into space.

But more importantly. Isn't that a FACE in that gas cloud??

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