RELEASE: 01-02

CHANDRA LINKS PULSAR TO HISTORIC SUPERNOVA

New evidence from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory suggests that a
known pulsar is the present-day counterpart to a supernova that exploded in
386 AD, a stellar explosion witnessed by Chinese astronomers. If confirmed,
this will be only the second known pulsar to be clearly associated with a
historic event.

In roughly the past 2,000 years, less than 10 reports of probable supernovae
have been archived, mostly by Asian astronomers. Until now, the Crab Nebula
has been the only pulsar whose birth is associated with a historic event,
the supernova of 1054 AD, making it the only neutron star with a firm age.

"Determining the true ages of astronomical objects is notoriously
difficult," said Victoria Kaspi of the McGill University, Montreal, Canada,
"and for this reason, historical records of supernova are of great
importance."

These results were presented today by Kaspi and Mallory Roberts, also of
McGill University, at the American Astronomical Society meeting in San
Diego, CA. Also participating in the research were Gautum Vasisht from
NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA; Eric Gotthelf from Columbia
University, New York City; Michael Pivovaroff from Thermawave, Inc.,
Fremont, CA; and Nobuyuki Kawai from the Institute of Physical and Chemical
Research, Japan.

Scientists used Chandra to locate the pulsar exactly at the geometric center
of the supernova remnant known as G11.2-0.3. This location provides very
strong evidence that the pulsar, a neutron star spinning 14 times per
second, was formed in the supernova of 386 AD, making it 1,615 years old.

Since pulsars move rapidly once they are formed, Chandra's ability to
pinpoint the pulsar at the remnant's center implies the system must be very
young. "We believe that the pulsar and the supernova remnant G11.2-0.3 are
both likely to be left over from the explosion seen by the Chinese observers
over 1,600 years ago," said Roberts. "While this is exciting by itself, it
also raises new questions about what we know about pulsars, especially
during their infancies."

These questions arose when the research team of the Japanese Advanced
Satellite for Cosmology and Astrophysics (ASCA) applied the present spin
rate to current models to determine the pulsar's estimated lifetime and
compared it to the age of G11.2-0.3. The result was an age of roughly 24,000
years -- far predating the birth year of 386 AD. To explain this
contradiction, the Chandra team argues that this pulsar may have had
approximately the same spin rate today as it did at its birth. If true, this
could have important implications for conventional wisdom regarding pulsars,
which may be spinning more slowly than previously thought.

Between mid-April and mid-May in the year 386 AD, the sudden appearance of a
new star, presumably a supernova, was recorded by Chinese observers in the
direction of the sky now known as the constellation of Sagittarius. In the
1970s, radio astronomers discovered an expanding nebula of gas and
high-energy particles, called G11.2-0.3, believed to be the remnant of that
explosion. In 1997, a team of X-ray astronomers used ASCA to discover a
pulsar in the same area of the sky.

Chandra observed G11.2-0.3 with the Advanced CCD Imaging Spectrometer at two
points in time: Aug. 6, 2000, and Oct. 15, 2000, for approximately 20,000
and 15,000 seconds respectively.

Associated images are available at:

http://chandra.nasa.gov

http://chandra.harvard.edu