For the first time, scientists have used NASA’s IXPE (Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer) to directly measure the magnetic fields of PSR J1101\u22126101, a pulsar located within what is often referred to as the Lighthouse Nebula. The results provide new insight into the structure of some of the most extreme objects in the cosmos.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Fast Facts<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n In June 2025, IXPE spent nearly 18 days focused on the Lighthouse Nebula. Astronomers studied two narrow X-ray offshoots extending from the pulsar \u2014 the “filament” and the “trail” \u2014 to better understand how high-energy particles interact with this energetic system.<\/p>\n\n\n\n When high-energy particles from the pulsar collide with interstellar gas, they form a bow shock, like the bow wave formed at the front of a speeding boat. Most particles become trapped behind this bow shock, forming the turbulent trail. Researchers have suspected since 2008 that the highest-energy particles escape through this bow shock, flowing along the galaxy’s magnetic field lines to create the nebula’s long, thin filament.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Jack Dinsmore, undergraduate student at Stanford University and lead author of the study, stated:<\/strong> One challenge with these measurements is that the Lighthouse Nebula is relatively faint. To address this, IXPE scientists developed advanced analysis methods that use every bit of data. With these new tools and observations, the science team successfully measured the filament’s polarisation. Their analysis confirmed with more than 99 percent confidence that the magnetic field aligns with the particles’ flow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Roger Romani, a Stanford University professor and co-author, added:<\/strong> The IXPE observations also showed that the magnetic field responsible for X-ray emission had to be parallel to the trail. However, the authors collected radio frequency observations showing a magnetic field pointing almost exactly perpendicular.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Niccol\u00f2 Bucciantini of the Italian National Institute for Astrophysics and co-author, concluded:<\/strong> For the first time, scientists have used NASA’s IXPE (Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer) to…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3139,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[221],"tags":[444,452,323,456,458,459,460,457,451,446,448,449,450,453,447,445,455,454],"class_list":["post-3122","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-global-news","tag-europe-space-news","tag-european-space-industry","tag-european-space-news","tag-european-space-technology","tag-newspace-europe","tag-satellite-news","tag-space-companies-europe","tag-space-exploration-europe","tag-space-industry-europe","tag-space-magazine","tag-space-magazine-europe","tag-space-magazines-europe","tag-space-magazines-germany","tag-space-magazines-italy","tag-space-news","tag-space-news-europe","tag-space-startups-europe","tag-space-technology-europe"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.spacepreneurmag.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3122","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.spacepreneurmag.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.spacepreneurmag.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.spacepreneurmag.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.spacepreneurmag.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3122"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.spacepreneurmag.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3122\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3140,"href":"https:\/\/www.spacepreneurmag.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3122\/revisions\/3140"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.spacepreneurmag.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3139"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.spacepreneurmag.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3122"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.spacepreneurmag.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3122"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.spacepreneurmag.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3122"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
“We wanted to test that theory. The ‘smoking gun’ would come by measuring the polarisation of the light, which indicates the magnetic field direction. If the magnetic field points along the filament, that confirms that the filament’s particles are flowing along the field.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“Many of the models for filaments assume strong magnetic turbulence. The high polarisation degree we measured indicates lower turbulence than such models require.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“The striking divergence in magnetic field orientations observed between radio and X-ray wavelengths provides compelling evidence for the highly structured nature of these objects. This marks the first clear indication that particles of different energies occupy distinct regions within the system, hinting at the presence of multiple, and potentially very different, acceleration mechanisms at work.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"