{"id":258027,"date":"2023-11-02T07:12:47","date_gmt":"2023-11-02T11:12:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sftarticles.wpenginepowered.com\/es\/?p=313045"},"modified":"2025-07-01T17:47:41","modified_gmt":"2025-07-02T00:47:41","slug":"nasa-shows-images-of-a-giant-cosmic-ghostly-hand","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/nasa-shows-images-of-a-giant-cosmic-ghostly-hand\/","title":{"rendered":"The NASA showcases images of a gigantic, ghostly cosmic hand"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Can you imagine being able to see the “bones” of a ghostly hand in space<\/strong>? Although it may seem completely outlandish, that’s exactly what two of NASA<\/strong>‘s X-ray telescopes have achieved by combining their images to reveal the “bony” magnetic field of a surprising hand-shaped space structure<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The images taken by both telescopes show the behavior of a collapsed, dead star that continues to live in the form of a “pulsar wind nebula<\/strong>“: jets of energized matter and antimatter particles combined with an intense wind.<\/p>\n\n\n

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In 2001, NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory<\/strong> observed the pulsar PSR B1509-58<\/strong> for the first time and revealed that its pulsar wind nebula (named MSH 15-52<\/strong>) resembles a human hand. The pulsar is located at the base of the “palm” of the nebula<\/a>, situated 16,000 light-years away from Earth<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now, NASA’s new X-ray telescope, the Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer (IXPE)<\/strong>, has observed MSH 15-52 for about 17 days, the longest time it has looked at any object since its launch in December 2021.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“The IXPE data gives us the first map of the magnetic field in the ‘hand’,” said Roger Romani<\/strong><\/a> of Stanford University in California, who led the study. “The charged particles producing the X-rays travel along the magnetic field, determining the basic shape of the nebula, much like bones do in a person’s hand.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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