High-energy polarised emission from Crab Nebula

This image shows the direction of polarisation (alignement) of the high-energy radiation emitted by the Crab Nebula, as detected by ESA’s Integral gamma-ray observatory. The shaded part represents the error in the determination of this direction. This direction is remarkably aligned with the inner jets of the Crab. On their turn, these are aligned with the rotation axis of the pulsar located at the centre of the system.

The Crab Nebula image in the background was obtained by combining an optical image by NASA/ESA’s Hubble Space Telescope and an X-ray image by NASA’s Chandra X-ray observatory.

Click here to listen to the audio file from Crab.