Pulsar wind nebula

The Vela Pulsar (centre) and its surrounding pulsar wind nebula
The inner Crab Nebula. Central part shows the pulsar wind nebula, with the red star in the centre being the Crab Pulsar. Image combines optical data from Hubble (in red) and X-ray data from Chandra (in blue).

A pulsar wind nebula (PWN, plural PWNe), sometimes called a plerion (derived from the Greek "πλήρης", pleres, meaning "full"),[1] is a type of nebula sometimes found inside the shell of a supernova remnant (SNR), powered by winds generated by a central pulsar. These nebulae were proposed as a class in 1976 as enhancements at radio wavelengths inside supernova remnants.[1] They have since been found to be infrared, optical, millimetre, X-ray[2] and gamma ray sources.[3][4]

  1. ^ a b Weiler, K. W.; Panagia, N. (November 1978). "Are Crab-type Supernova Remnants (Plerions) Short-lived?". Astronomy & Astrophysics. 70: 419–422. Bibcode:1978A&A....70..419W.
  2. ^ Safi-Harb, Samar (December 2012). Plerionic supernova remnants. AIP Conference Proceedings: 5th International Meeting on High Energy Gamma-Ray Astronomy. AIP Conference Proceedings. Vol. 1505. pp. 13–20. arXiv:1210.5406. Bibcode:2012AIPC.1505...13S. doi:10.1063/1.4772215. S2CID 119113738.
  3. ^ Guetta, Dafne; Granot, Jonathan (March 2003). "Observational implications of a plerionic environment for gamma-ray bursts". Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. 340 (1): 115–138. arXiv:astro-ph/0208156. Bibcode:2003MNRAS.340..115G. doi:10.1046/j.1365-8711.2003.06296.x. S2CID 14308769.
  4. ^ Cite error: The named reference Gaensler2006 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).