NASA’s Chandra and IXPE Study Pulsar in Lighthouse Nebula

Source: This report is based on an official public release from NASA. PULSE organizes and summarizes public government communications. Read the original release →

This composite image, released on July 9, 2026, shows the region around apulsar– a neutron star with a strong magnetic field that spins incredibly fast – within the Lighthouse nebula.

The image contains X-ray data from NASA’sChandra X-ray Observatoryin purple, X-rays from NASA’sIXPE in blue, and radio emission captured by the Australia Compact Telescope Array in green.

Scientists used IXPE – for the first time ever – to directly measure the magnetic fields of the pulsar.

The results provide new insight into the structure of some of the most extreme objects in the cosmos, as NASA continues to explore the secrets of how the universe works.

Apaper describing the resultspublished July 9 in the Astrophysical Journal.

Read more about this novel use of IXPE.

Image credit: X-ray: Chandra: NASA/CXC/Stanford Univ./J.

Dinsmore et al.; IXPE: NASA/MSFC/J.

Dinsmore et al., Radio: CSIRO/ATNF/ATCA; Optical: 2MASS/UMass/IPAC-Caltech/NASA/NSF; Image processing: NASA/CXC/SAO/L.

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