The Acceleration Zone of a Pulsar Wind Nebula and the Magnetic Field of the Vela Nucleus in Three Sun-Like Stars

Oscillations in the light emanating from three Sun-like stars reveal the presence of strong magnetic fields deep in their interiors. The quirk of stellar dynamics has yet to be understood.

The stars’ debris linger in space for a long time after they die. A rotating star the size of a city emits a wind of fast-moving, charged particles after it’s dead core becomes a pulsar. This pulsar wind carries a strong magnetic field, typically shaped like a doughnut, that generates a gas cloud called a pulsar wind nebula as it slams into the surrounding material1, accelerating the particles to energies much higher than can be achieved on Earth. The study of the magnetic field in the acceleration zone of the Vela wind nebula found that it was highly ordered and symmetrical. This could give us clues about why these nebulae are so powerful.