The wobbly beam of the Vela pulsar

At the center of the Vela supernova remnant is a madly spinning neutron star. It spins *11 times per second*, which helps it whip up a magnetic field so fierce it can actually defy the gravity of the star, which is a billion times stronger than Earth's!

All of this help it generate two beams of matter and energy that blast away from its poles. Recent observations of this beam show that it appears to be wobbly, making a corkscrew motion over a period of 120 days. This movie is made from 8 images of the pulsar and its weird beam taken by the Chandra X-ray Observatory.

Video credit: NASA/CXC/UToronto/M. Durrant et al.
Notes and annotations: Phil Plait

[McLguitars]

Only Phil can load a video less than a minute long and blow my mind.... That video is incredible!

[amikescott]

must rank as one of the most amazing few seconds of video I've ever seen

[artao]

SOOO cool that this is happening only about 952 years ago, and science has this video of it. Just wow.
Especially in comparison to something like the developing video of the Fomalhaut Star System, which is happening only about 25 years ago.

[BrennenL]

That's so cool! Thank You for uploading! :-)

[FunnyRumel]

It blows my mind that we just saw something that is happening so freaking far away, for no - to us related - reason.
It's not like a computer game, where we were supposed to see that, in realitiy this incredible thing is just happening and we, by accident, are lucky so observe it.

[cool]

is this a REAL pic/video pf a neutron start??!?!?! that's so awesome

[Modenut]

Amazing.

I can't help but think it looks like a blurry film of a cigarette smoldering in an ashtray though hehe.

[lufcbrice]

good point, I'm sure they can get footage of black holes

[stiimuli]

am I the only one who, after the music started, half expected Peter Gabriel to chime in with "Climbin up on Solsbury Hill...."

[ZenoFerox]

Read the credits at the end. It's by McLeod.

[aliciawhite]

At the center of the Vela supernova remnant is a madly spinning neutron star. It spins *11 times per second*, which helps it whip up a magnetic field so fierce it can actually defy the gravity of the star, which is a billion times stronger than Earth's!

All of this help it generate two beams of matter and energy that blast away from its poles. Recent observations of this beam show that it appears to be wobbly, making a corkscrew motion over a period of 120 days. This movie is made from 8 images of the pulsar and its weird beam taken by the Chandra X-ray Observatory.

[nhnifong]

The video is clearly a short loop. Don't you think it is misleading not to mention that, or at least state that it is not, if that's the case? If all we have to go on is this short segment, then it may not be corkscrewing at all.

[stiimuli]

Phil, Why don't we see more lime lapse videos and animations of what's going on out there? Obviously this would provide a great deal of additional information.

Is it simply because within a human lifetime such noticeable changes are rarely visible?

[docatomics]

☢☢☢ now that is a "star ship" engine !

[kaoruhonjou]

Does this prove also that the jets of matter are affected by dark matter that's why it's creating that corkscrew look?

[lonetown]

Are ther any clues as to what the matter is composed of? Would it be light elements like hydrogen and helium or is it carbon, boron, etc?

[CanadienAtheist]

Tiger, Tiger, burning bright.
In the forest of the night!

[digitalblasphemy]

i see you making comments on all the videos that i go to.

[pnisdump]

is the beam following the golden ratio?

[manuelmarinot.]

Too bad the video does not include the very distinctive pulsing sound coming from Vela.