21st of April 2016 |
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The Highly Ordered Magnetic Field Structure of the Snail Nebula |
by Stephen C.-Y. Ng (HKU) |
This is a composite radio image of the
Snail pulsar wind nebula and the
surrounding supernova remnant G327.1-1.1, taken with ATCA at 6cm and the
Molonglo Observatory Synthesis Telescope at 36cm. The Snail is a rare
system that is recently crushed by the supernova reverse shock. This
displaced the nebula from the pulsar position (marked by the cross) and
form the "body" of the Snail. The high resolution ATCA image in the right
panel reveals the intrinsic magnetic field structure of the nebula. This
implies a highly ordered field, which is unexpected given the turbulent
environment resulting from the crush. Reference: Ma, Y. K., Ng, C.-Y., Bucciantini, N., Slane, P. O., Gaensler, B. M., & Temim, T. 2016, ApJ 820, 100 |