IGR J11014−6103, also called the Lighthouse Nebula, is a pulsar wind nebula trailing the neutron star which has the longest relativistic jet observed in the Milky Way.

Description

The object consists of a neutron star with a radius of about 12 km, which formed about 10,000–30,000 years ago in a supernova explosion. The explosion "kicked" the neutron star, which is now moving through space with a velocity of between 0.3% and 0.8% of the speed of light, faster than almost all other known runaway neutron stars. The pulsar is now about 60 light-years from the original supernova location.

The neutron star is the source of a relativistic helical jet, which is observed in X-rays but has no detected radio signature.[1] In the composite processed image (right) the neutron star pulsar is the point-like object with a pulsar wind nebula tail trailing behind it for about 3 light-years. The jet, aligned with the pulsar rotation axis, is perpendicular to the pulsar's trajectory and extends out over 37 light-years (about nine times the distance from our sun to the nearest visible star). The estimated velocity of the jet is about 80% of the speed of light.

The star was initially presumed to be rapidly spinning but later measurements indicate that its spin rate is only 15.9 Hz.[2][3] This rather slow spin rate and the fact that there is no evidence of accretion suggests that the jet is neither rotation nor accretion powered. A counter-jet (not shown in the image) has been detected, but is much fainter, possibly due to relativistic beaming.[4][5] The origin of the glitch at about a third of the jet length is not known, but it might be due to the jet switching off and on or the jet orientation changing.

References

External links

• The long helical jet of the Lighthouse nebula
• The Lighthouse nebula, NASA: Astronomy Picture of the Day, 2014 February 21
• A lighthouse pulsar (German)

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