NASA’s Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer (IXPE) telescope observed MSH 15-52, nicknamed the ‘Cosmic Hand’, for about 17 days, the longest it has looked at any single object since it launched in December 2021. The data collected provided astronomers with the first map of the magnetic field in the ‘hand’, or charged particles producing the X-rays that travel along the magnetic field.
Researchers were able to determine the electric field orientation of X-rays, and what stood out about the large regions of MSH 15-52 was that the amount of polarization is incredibly high, reaching the maximum level expected from theoretical work. For this to be possible, the magnetic field must be very straight and uniform, which means there is little turbulence in those regions of the pulsar wind nebula.
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We’ve uncovered the life history of super energetic matter and antimatter particles around the pulsar. This teaches us about how pulsars can act as particle accelerators,” said Niccolò Di Lalla, co-author of the paper from Stanford.
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