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Vela Pulsar Zoom & Crab Nebula Comparison

Chandra's image of the Vela Pulsar shows a dramatic bow-like structure at the leading edge of the cloud, or nebula, embedded in the Vela supernova remnant. As indicated by the arrow, the jets point in the same direction as the motion of the pulsar. The swept-back appearance of the nebula is due to the motion of the pulsar through the supernova remnant. The last few frames of this animation show the region of space around the rapidly rotating neutron stars in the Crab Nebula (left) compared with Vela (right). The inner Crab ring is 1 light year in diameter; in Vela it is 0.1 light year.
[Run time = 0:16 sec]
Credit:
Animation: CXC/A.Hobart; Images: NASA/SAO/CXC