![]() The result was an age of roughly 24,000 years - far predating the birth year of 386 AD. These questions arose when the research team of the Japanese Advanced Satellite for Cosmology and Astrophysics (ASCA) applied the present spin rate to current models to determine the pulsar's estimated lifetime and compared it to the age of G11.2-0.3. "While this is exciting by itself, it also raises new questions about what we know about pulsars, especially during their infancies." "We believe that the pulsar and the supernova remnant G11.2-0.3 are both likely to be left over from the explosion seen by the Chinese observers over 1,600 years ago," said Mallory Roberts of McGill University. This location provides very strong evidence that the pulsar, a neutron star spinning 14 times per second, was formed in the supernova of 386 AD, making it 1,615 years old.īecause pulsars, once they are formed, race away from the site of the supernova explosion, Chandra's ability to pinpoint the pulsar at the remnant's center implies the system must be very young. Kaspi and colleagues, who presented their results yesterday at the American Astronomical Society meeting in San Diego, CA, used Chandra to locate the pulsar exactly at the geometric center of the supernova remnant known as G11.2-0.3. Sign up for EXPRESS SCIENCE NEWS delivery "Determining the true ages of astronomical objects is notoriously difficult," said Victoria Kaspi of McGill University in Montreal, Canada, "and for this reason, historical records of supernova are of great importance." Right: This Chandra image clearly locates a pulsar exactly at the geometric center of the supernova remnant known as G11.2-0.3. Until now, the Crab Nebula has been the only pulsar whose birth is associated with an historic event, the supernova of 1054 AD, making it the only neutron star with a firm age. In roughly the past 2,000 years, less than 10 reports of probable supernovae have been archived, mostly by Asian astronomers. If confirmed, this will be only the second known pulsar to be clearly associated with an historic event. Janu- New evidence from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory suggests that a known pulsar is the present-day counterpart to a supernova that exploded in 386 AD, a stellar explosion witnessed by ancient Chinese astronomers.
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