NASA's X-Ray Telescopes Unveil the Haunting 'Ghostly Cosmic Hand'

NASA's X-ray space telescope has captured an eerie image of a stellar explosion known as MSH 15-52, which resembles a skeleton hand in deep space. The explosion left behind a pulsar, a fast-spinning, superdense stellar corpse that emits powerful jets of charged particles and intense wind, creating a pulsar wind nebula. Using NASA's Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer (IXPE), scientists observed MSH 15-52 and discovered new details about its magnetic field and X-ray jets. The high polarization in certain regions of the nebula suggests little turbulence, while complex, turbulent regions give particles an "energy boost." The findings shed light on the life history of energetic matter and antimatter particles around pulsars.