<p class="title">NASA scientists have discovered a special kind of neutron star for the first time outside of the Milky Way galaxy, and released a stunning image of the stellar body located 200,000 light years from Earth.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Neutron stars are the ultra dense cores of massive stars that collapse and undergo a supernova explosion.</p>.<p class="bodytext">The newly identified neutron star, discovered using data from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory and the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope (VLT) in Chile, is a rare variety that has both a low magnetic field and no stellar companion.</p>.<p class="bodytext">The neutron star is located within the remains of a supernova - known as 1E 0102.2-7219 (E0102) - in the Small Magellanic Cloud, located 200,000 light years from Earth.</p>.<p class="bodytext">A new composite image of E0102 allows astronomers to learn new details about this object that was discovered more than three decades ago.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Oxygen-rich supernova remnants like E0102 are important for understanding how massive stars fuse lighter elements into heavier ones before they explode.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Seen up to a few thousand years after the original explosion, oxygen-rich remnants contain the debris ejected from the dead star's interior. This debris is observed today hurtling through space after being expelled at millions of miles per hour.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Chandra observations of E0102 show that the supernova remnant is dominated by a large ring-shaped structure in X-rays, associated with the blast wave of the supernova.</p>.<p class="bodytext">The new MUSE data revealed a smaller ring of gas that is expanding more slowly than the blast wave. At the centre of this ring is a blue point-like source of X-rays. Together, the small ring and point source act like a celestial bull's eye.</p>.<p class="bodytext">The combined Chandra and MUSE data suggest that this source is an isolated neutron star, created in the supernova explosion about two millennia ago.</p>.<p class="bodytext">The X-ray energy signature, or 'spectrum,' of this source is very similar to that of the neutron stars located at the center of two other famous oxygen-rich supernova remnants: Cassiopeia A (Cas A) and Puppis A. These two neutron stars also do not have companion stars.</p>.<p class="bodytext">The lack of evidence for extended radio emission or pulsed X-ray radiation, typically associated with rapidly rotating highly-magnetised neutron stars, indicates that the astronomers have detected the X-radiation from the hot surface of an isolated neutron star with low magnetic fields.</p>.<p class="bodytext">About ten such objects have been detected in the Milky Way galaxy, but this is the first one detected outside our galaxy.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Future observations of E0102 at X-ray, optical, and radio wavelengths should help astronomers understand how the neutron star ended up in its current position, seemingly offset from the centre of the circular shell of X-ray emission produced by the blast wave of the supernova. </p>
<p class="title">NASA scientists have discovered a special kind of neutron star for the first time outside of the Milky Way galaxy, and released a stunning image of the stellar body located 200,000 light years from Earth.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Neutron stars are the ultra dense cores of massive stars that collapse and undergo a supernova explosion.</p>.<p class="bodytext">The newly identified neutron star, discovered using data from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory and the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope (VLT) in Chile, is a rare variety that has both a low magnetic field and no stellar companion.</p>.<p class="bodytext">The neutron star is located within the remains of a supernova - known as 1E 0102.2-7219 (E0102) - in the Small Magellanic Cloud, located 200,000 light years from Earth.</p>.<p class="bodytext">A new composite image of E0102 allows astronomers to learn new details about this object that was discovered more than three decades ago.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Oxygen-rich supernova remnants like E0102 are important for understanding how massive stars fuse lighter elements into heavier ones before they explode.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Seen up to a few thousand years after the original explosion, oxygen-rich remnants contain the debris ejected from the dead star's interior. This debris is observed today hurtling through space after being expelled at millions of miles per hour.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Chandra observations of E0102 show that the supernova remnant is dominated by a large ring-shaped structure in X-rays, associated with the blast wave of the supernova.</p>.<p class="bodytext">The new MUSE data revealed a smaller ring of gas that is expanding more slowly than the blast wave. At the centre of this ring is a blue point-like source of X-rays. Together, the small ring and point source act like a celestial bull's eye.</p>.<p class="bodytext">The combined Chandra and MUSE data suggest that this source is an isolated neutron star, created in the supernova explosion about two millennia ago.</p>.<p class="bodytext">The X-ray energy signature, or 'spectrum,' of this source is very similar to that of the neutron stars located at the center of two other famous oxygen-rich supernova remnants: Cassiopeia A (Cas A) and Puppis A. These two neutron stars also do not have companion stars.</p>.<p class="bodytext">The lack of evidence for extended radio emission or pulsed X-ray radiation, typically associated with rapidly rotating highly-magnetised neutron stars, indicates that the astronomers have detected the X-radiation from the hot surface of an isolated neutron star with low magnetic fields.</p>.<p class="bodytext">About ten such objects have been detected in the Milky Way galaxy, but this is the first one detected outside our galaxy.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Future observations of E0102 at X-ray, optical, and radio wavelengths should help astronomers understand how the neutron star ended up in its current position, seemingly offset from the centre of the circular shell of X-ray emission produced by the blast wave of the supernova. </p>