Chandra Release - January 18, 2017

Visual Description: Geminga and B0355+54

NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory has taken deep exposures of two nearby energetic pulsars flying through the Milky Way galaxy. The shape of their X-ray emission suggests there is a geometrical explanation for puzzling differences in behavior shown by some pulsars. Four images are shown, with two across the top in X-ray and Infrared light, and two across the bottom as illustrations of the astronomical images above them. Geminga is in the upper left and B0355+54 is in the upper right. In both of these images, Chandra's X-rays, colored blue and purple, are combined with infrared data from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope that shows stars in the field of view. Below each data image, an artist's illustration depicts more details of what astronomers think the structure of each pulsar wind nebula looks like. The first image shows a blue-purple nebula in a cursive "E" shape, while the second image displays a smaller more purple-pink nebula in a tiny jellyfish shape.