A Science fiction mingled with reality after a “ghost hand” appeared in images taken by Chandra Observatory’s x-ray for the Nasa. In the recently released material, a stellar cloud appears to be shaped like a hand that “grabs” a glowing cloud.
Despite the joke, the phenomenon has an explanation: according to members of the observatory’s team, the “ghost hand” seen on NASA’s x-ray is just a “pulsar” resulting from the death of a star after it has entered the phase of supernova – name given to one of the last evolutionary phases of stars, which explode in an uncontrolled reaction.
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Here, the star in question (supernova MSH 15-52) is about 17,000 light years away, and its light has reached the Terra around 1,700 years. In other words, the remnants of this supernova are quite young compared to other examples observed in the Milky Way. The cloud where the “hand” reaches is called RCW 89.
This pulsar ended up scattering a bubble of energy particles around it. Combined with the debris thrown up by the supernova explosion, it generated the appearance of a “ghost hand”. Although the images show it well framed, in reality the structure is quite large: the Chandra observatory team estimates an extension of 150 light years. For purposes of understanding, a light year is equivalent to 9,461,000,000,000 kilometers.
This isn’t the first light source to stand out in the astronomical community this month: cosmology doctoral student Alexia Lopez, in England, found a “giant arc of galaxies” which, for all intents and purposes, challenges the current understanding of science, since, according to the principles of cosmology, this arch should not even exist, given its massive size of over three billion light years.
About NASA’s “ghost hand”, the team that observed it emphasizes that this is not its first encounter with the phenomenon: since 2004, the dynamics of its movements have been observed. The conclusion is that the shock wave (the “fingers”, if you prefer the reference) is traveling at an incredible 14.5 million kilometers per hour (km/h), with the center sailing even faster, at 17 ,7 million km/h.
According to the observatory’s team, however, this actually represents a slowdown: “Although these are impressive numbers, they represent a slow progression”, said the scientists. “According to experts, the estimate is that, to reach the edge of the RCW 89 cloud, the supernova material would have to be traveling at just over 48 million km/h.”
Chandra is one of NASA’s largest observatories, having been active in the production of space imaging via x-ray since July 1999, when it was launched into Earth orbit.
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