The following story covers research into Pulsars and the data from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory. I hope others find it as informative as I have........ http://www.sciencealert.com/scienti...coded-the-strange-signals-coming-from-pulsars Scientists might have finally decoded the strange signals coming from pulsars The answer's in the cloud. Astronomers studying pulsars may have finally unravelled why these mysterious pulsating objects appear to send different kinds of signals into space – by tracking the immense cloud trails of their nebulae. Thanks to images taken by NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory, a new analysis of two very contrasting pulsars shows that pulsars' energy emissions may only be visible to Earth from certain angles – which could explain a mystery that's puzzled scientists up until now. more at.................... http://www.sciencealert.com/scienti...coded-the-strange-signals-coming-from-pulsars from the link: Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! Top Left X-ray: NASA/CXC/PSU/B.Posselt et al; Infrared: NASA/JPL-Caltech. Top Right X-ray: NASA/CXC/GWU/N.Klinger et al; Infrared: NASA/JPL-Caltech. Illustrations by Nahks Tr'Ehnl.
The findings in the article above, are reported in The Astrophysical Journal as follows........ http://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/1538-4357/833/2/253/meta DEEP CHANDRA OBSERVATIONS OF THE PULSAR WIND NEBULA CREATED BY PSR B0355+54 Abstract We report on Chandra X-ray Observatory (CXO) observations of the pulsar wind nebula (PWN) associated with PSR B0355+54 (eight observations with a 395 ks total exposure, performed over an eight month period). We investigated the spatial and spectral properties of the emission coincident with the pulsar, compact nebula (CN), and extended tail. We find that the CN morphology can be interpreted in a way that suggests a small angle between the pulsar spin axis and our line of sight, as inferred from the radio data. On larger scales, emission from the Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! (Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! pc) tail is clearly seen. We also found hints of two faint extensions nearly orthogonal to the direction of the pulsar's proper motion. The spectrum extracted at the pulsar position can be described with an absorbed power-law + blackbody model. The nonthermal component can be attributed to magnetospheric emission, while the thermal component can be attributed to emission from either a hot spot (e.g., a polar cap) or the entire neutron star surface. Surprisingly, the spectrum of the tail shows only a slight hint of cooling with increasing distance from the pulsar. This implies either a low magnetic field with fast flow speed, or particle reacceleration within the tail. We estimate physical properties of the PWN and compare the morphologies of the CN and the extended tail with those of other bow shock PWNe observed with long CXO exposures.
