New findings using NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory and ground-based radio telescopes have revealed a cosmic collision near the heart of our galaxy—where a fast-moving neutron star appears to have shattered a massive, bone-like structure.
Astronomers studying the Milky Way’s center have identified a dramatic fracture in a galactic feature nicknamed “The Snake,” officially known as G359.13142-0.20005 (or G359.13). This 230 light-year-long filament is one of many enigmatic structures that resemble bones or snakes, visible in radio waves and traced by magnetic fields.
The break in G359.13, clearly seen in composite images combining X-ray data from Chandra and radio data from the MeerKAT radio array in South Africa, appears to have been caused by a high-speed pulsar—a spinning neutron star traveling at over a million miles per hour.
These neutron stars are the dense, city-sized remnants of exploded massive stars. Their powerful birth explosions can fling them through space at tremendous speeds. Astronomers now believe one such pulsar struck the Snake head-on, warping its magnetic field and disrupting the spiraling flow of energetic particles responsible for its radio emissions.
Researchers also detected an additional X-ray source near the impact site, likely caused by high-energy electrons and their antimatter counterparts, positrons—possibly accelerated by the pulsar’s collision with the filament.
G359.13 is located about 26,000 light-years from Earth, near the Milky Way’s core. To put its size into perspective, more than 800 stars exist within the same distance from Earth that this “cosmic bone” spans from end to end.
“These results give us an unprecedented look at how fast-moving stellar remnants can influence and distort the magnetic structures in the Galactic Center,” said lead author Farhad Yusuf-Zadeh of Northwestern University.
The findings are published in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society (May 2024 edition). Other authors include researchers from institutions such as the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian, University of Alberta, and University of Iowa.
NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center manages the Chandra program, with science and flight operations handled by the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory in Massachusetts.
The released imagery includes two striking composites. The main image shows the full length of the filament, with faint grey lines marking the structure, and blue X-ray spots highlighting areas of intense energy. A close-up inset reveals the apparent fracture, with the pulsar identified near the break—captured mid-smash in a rare galactic act of cosmic violence.