Explanation:
Born in supernovae, pulsars are spinning neutron stars,
collapsed stellar cores left from the death explosions
of massive stars.
Traditionally
identified and studied by observing their regular
radio pulsations,
two dozen pulsars have now been
detected at extreme gamma-ray energies
by the
Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope.
The detections include 16 pulsars identified by their
pulsed gamma-ray emission alone.
This gamma-ray all-sky map, aligned with the plane of our Milky Way
Galaxy, shows
the pulsar positions, with the 16 new Fermi pulsars circled in yellow
(8 previously known radio pulsars are in magenta).
Bizarre stellar corpses, the Vela,
Crab, and Geminga pulsars on the
right are the brightest ones in the gamma-ray sky.
Pulsars Taz, Eel, and Rabbit are named for the nebulae they are now
known to power.
The Gamma Cygni and
CTA 1 pulsars at the left also reside
within
expanding supernova remnants
of the same name.
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