Abstract
THE observable interactions of neutron stars with their local environment provide an opportunity for measuring the properties of both relativistic pulsar winds and the surrounding interstellar medium. Here we report the discovery of a prominent nebula produced by the motion of a high-velocity pulsar, PSR 2224 + 65, through partially neutral gas. The pulsar's transverse speed of 800 km s–1 makes it arguably the fastest known star in the Galaxy and guarantees that it will ultimately escape the galactic potential well. A deep Hα image reveals a bright head and a faint, limb-brightened 'body' whose variable width suggests that the ambient interstellar gas has density variations on length scales 0.1 pc. Thermalization of shock energy occurs at a rate of about 10–2 times the pulsar's spindown loss rate. Our observations provide some insights into the likelihood of finding shocks around other pulsars and the use of nebulae to find high-velocity neutron stars either not acting as pulsars or with their radiation beamed away from the Earth.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Scargle, J. Astrophys J. 156, 401–426 (1969).
van den Bergh, S. & Pritchet, C. J. Astrophys. J. 388, L69–L70 (1989).
Hoshino, M., Arons, J., Galland, Y. & Langdon, A. Astrophys. J. 390, 454–479 (1992).
Bietenholz, M. F., Frail, D. A. & Hankins, T. H. Astrophys. J. 376, L41–L44 (1991).
Hester, J. J. & Kulkarni, S. R. Astrophys. J. 331, L121–L125 (1988).
Frail, D. A. & Kulkarni, S. R. Nature 352, 785–787 (1991).
Manchester, R. N., Kaspi, V. M., Johnston, S. Lyne, A. G. & D'Amico, N. Mon. Not. R. astr. Soc. 253, 7P–10P (1991).
Kulkarni, S. R. & Hester, J. J. Nature 335, 801–803 (1988).
Kulkarni, S. R., Phinney, E. S., Evans, C. R. & Hasinger, G. R. Nature 359, 300–302 (1992).
Gunn, J. et al. Opt. Engng. 26, 779–787 (1987).
Cordes, J. M. Astrophys. J. 311, 183–196 (1986).
Harrison, P. A., Lyne, A. G. & Anderson, B. in X-Ray Binaries and the Formation of Binary and Millisecond Pulsars (eds van den Heuvel, E. P. J. & Rappaport, S.) 155–160 (Kluwer, Dordrecht, 1992).
Taylor, J. H. & Cordes, J. M. Astrophys. J. (in the press).
Taam, R. & Bodenheimer, P. in X-Ray Binaries and the Formation of Binary and Millisecond Pulsars (eds van den Heuvel, E. P. J. & Rappaport, S.) 281–292 (Kluwer, Dordrecht, 1992).
Raymond, J. C. Pbls astr. Soc. Pacif. 103, 781–786 (1991).
Chevalier, R. A., Kirshner, R. P. & Raymond, J. C. Astrophys. J. 235, 186–195 (1980).
Aldcroft, T. L., Romani, R. W. & Cordes, J. M. Astrophys. J. 400, 638–646 (1992).
Lyne, A. G., Manchester, R. M. & Taylor, J. H. Astrophys. J. 213, 613–639 (1985).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Cordes, J., Romani, R. & Lundgren, S. The Guitar nebula: a bow shock from a slow-spin, high-velocity neutron star. Nature 362, 133–135 (1993). https://doi.org/10.1038/362133a0
Received:
Accepted:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/362133a0
- Springer Nature Limited
This article is cited by
-
Core-collapse supernova explosion theory
Nature (2021)
-
Pulsar-Wind Nebulae and Magnetar Outflows: Observations at Radio, X-Ray, and Gamma-Ray Wavelengths
Space Science Reviews (2017)
-
Pulsar Wind Nebulae with Bow Shocks: Non-thermal Radiation and Cosmic Ray Leptons
Space Science Reviews (2017)
-
The evolution of hierarchical triple star-systems
Computational Astrophysics and Cosmology (2016)
-
The spatial distribution of old neutron stars in the Galaxy
Science China Physics, Mechanics and Astronomy (2010)