Pulsar wind nebulae research focuses on the relativistic outflows of electron–positron pairs and magnetic fields driven by rapidly rotating, highly magnetized neutron stars, and on the resulting non-thermal nebulae produced as these winds interact with their surroundings. This area integrates high-energy astrophysics, plasma physics, and magnetohydrodynamics to study particle acceleration, shock formation, magnetic field amplification, and radiation processes (synchrotron and inverse Compton) spanning radio to TeV gamma rays. It also investigates PWN evolution within supernova remnants and the interstellar medium, their morphology, and their role as laboratories for cosmic-ray production and magnetized relativistic plasmas.
A theoretical astrophysicist from the University of Kansas may have solved a nearly two-decade-old mystery over the origins of an unusual "zebra" pattern seen in high-frequency radio pulses from the Crab Nebula.
Astronomy
Nov 18, 2024
0
142
Using the Large High-Altitude Air Shower Observatory (LHAASO), an international team of astronomers have detected very-high-energy (VHE) gamma-rays around the pulsar PSR J0248+6021, which may be the pulsar's halo or a pulsar ...
