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Cosmic OrnamentThree telescopes have spotted a bright new star in the heavens—a young pulsar surrounded by the remains of a supernova. Pulsars are the spinning cores of dead stars that ended their lives in huge explosions.Revealed by x-ray data, the newfound pulsar is the blue-tinged point of light seen at the upper right of the frame. Optical data show that the stellar corpse is encased in a shell of dust and gas—the first time such an object has been found in the Small Magellanic Cloud, a satellite galaxy of the Milky Way. The picture also shows the intricate structure of a nearby star-forming region.(Find out more about the Magellanic clouds in National Geographic magazine.)The above picture, released this week, combines x-ray data from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory and ESA's XMM-Newton space telescope with visible-light data from the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory in Chile.
Image courtesy L. Oskinova et al, University of Potsdam/CXC/NASA

Space Pictures This Week: Cosmic Ornament, Pulsing Star

A starry bauble, a space shuttle decked with lights, and a rare warped galaxy feature among this week's best space pictures.

December 24, 2011