We find magnetic fields very attractive

  We find magnetic fields very attractive:

This image shows supernova remnant SN 1006. It combines data from our Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer (IXPE) and @nasachandraxray. The red, green, and blue elements reflect low, medium, and high energy X-rays. The IXPE data, which measure the polarization of the X-ray light, is show in purple in the upper left corner, with the addition of lines representing the outward movement of the remnant’s magnetic field.⁣

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Researchers say the results show a connection between the magnetic fields and the remnants high-energy particle outflow. Mapping these magnetic field structures of supernova remnants at higher energies with enhanced detail and accuracy enables us to better understand the processes driving the acceleration of these particles.⁣

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SN 1006 is about 6,500 light-years from Earth in the Lupus constellation. It is the remains of a massive explosion which occurred with when two white dwarfs merged or when a white dwarf pulled too much mass from a companion star – creating what is thought to be the brightest stellar event recorded in history.⁣

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Image description: The debris from an exploded star resembles a mottled red ball of churning fire against a softer backdrop of stars. The supernova remnant appears to be encircled by a gauzy blue and white ring that is most prominent at our lower right and upper left. This structure is markedly different from other rounded supernova remnants. At the upper lefthand corner, a labeled section of SN 1006 is highlighted in a blue-tinted circle. Within this circle, only the outer ring of the supernova remnant is shown, not the mottled red stellar material churning inside. This ring is part of the supernova's expanding blast wave, which has been observed in X-ray light by both Chandra and IXPE. Magnetic field lines are illustrated in the circle as spiky, white lines, pointing mostly upwards and toward the left. The backdrop of stars was captured in infrared light by the Spitzer Space Telescope.⁣

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Credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/SAO (Chandra); NASA/MSFC/Nanjing Univ./P. Zhou et al. (IXPE); IR: NASA/JPL/Caltech/Spitzer; Image Processing: NASA/CXC/SAO/J.Schmidt⁣

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29 October 2023