Description courtesy
@Timothy Martin RCW 103 - A Supernova Remnant in the Norma Constellation RCW 103 is a unique object in the night sky. There is simply nothing quite like it. The remnant of a supernova explosion whose light reached us around the time Julius Caesar crossed the Rubicon, it is roughly 10,000 light years away. What makes this object unusual is that the explosion resulted in the creation of a magnetar--a rare form of neutron star that sports a magnetic field a trillion times stronger than the earth's magnetic field. Scientists are aware of only around 10 magnetars in the entire Milky Way galaxy. They are few and far between. But what makes it truly unique is that it is the slowest rotating pulsar (a rotating neutron star) that we know about. There is some evidence to suggest that its rotation is so slow because its progenitor star was only about 10 to 12 times the mass of our sun. Usually, a star must be 25 to 50 or more solar masses to trigger the type of core-collapse supernova that results in creation of a neutron star or black hole. It's a mystery how a star so small experienced this type of supernova explosion and an even greater enigma is how it started its life after death as a magnetar. It also appears to be an unusually long-lived (or perhaps, I should say "long undead") magnetar. Magnetars usually only last about 10,000 years before they calm down to become regular, run-of-the-mill neutron stars. Note that by "run-of-the-mill neutron star," I mean a sphere the size of Manhattan with the mass of our sun that is made from a crust of nothing but neutrons and perhaps filled with a substance called "strange matter" that derives its name from the fact that it, in turn, comprises an insanely dense soup of rare, "strange" quarks. So please enjoy the "strange" beauty of RCW 103. Its like will not be seen again around these parts.
Comments