Image and Illustration of J0108 (IMAGE)

Chandra X-ray Center

Image and Illustration of J0108

Caption

The composite image on the left shows X-ray data from the Chandra X-ray Observatory (purple) and optical emission from Very Large Telescope (red, white and blue.) The Chandra source in the center of the image is the ancient pulsar PSR J0108-1431, or J0108 for short. At an age of about 200 million years, this pulsar is the oldest isolated pulsar ever detected in X-rays. This pulsar is slowing down as it ages and converting some of the energy that is being lost into X-rays, more efficiently than for any other known pulsar. The artist’s illustration on the right shows what J0108 might look like if viewed close up.

Credit

X-ray: NASA/CXC/Penn State/G. Pavlov et al. Optical: ESO/VLT/UCL/R. Mignani et al. Illustration: CXC/M. Weiss

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