The Jellyfish Nebula (officially known as IC 443) is a supernova remnant about 5,000 light years from Earth. Astronomers have been looking for the spinning neutron star, or pulsar, from the explosion that created the remnant. New Chandra observations have likely spotted a pulsar on the southern edge the Jellyfish Nebula. The X-ray data also provide new details about the structure and properties of this pulsar.
The Jellyfish Nebula is the remnant of a supernova that occurred over 10,000 years ago in our galaxy. New Chandra observations show that a peculiar object located on the southern edge of the remnant is likely a pulsar and may have formed in the explosion that created the Jellyfish Nebula. This new composite image shows the spectacular filamentary structure of IC 443 in a wide-field view from an amateur astrophotographer. Within the inset box, another optical image from the Digitized Sky Survey (red, green, orange, and cyan) has been combined with X-ray data from Chandra (blue). The inset shows a close-up view of the region around the pulsar candidate. Wide Field Optical: Focal Pointe Observatory/B.Franke, Inset: X-ray: NASA/CXC/MSFC/D.Swartz et al, Inset: Optical: DSS, SARA
