A pulsar wind nebula looks like a ghostly hand in the combined image taken by ChandraXray and Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer (IXPE). The pulsar, a rapidly rotating dense neutron star, can be seen as a bright white dot near the base of the palm. The new combination with IXPE reveals the magnetic field "bones" of this remarkable structure. IXPE observed this pulsar, MSH 15-52, for 17 days, the longest time it has looked at a single object since it was launched in December 2021.

The second image shows the magnetic field map at MSH 15-52. In this image, the short straight lines represent the IXPE polarisation measurements and map the direction of the local magnetic field. The orange "bars" show the most sensitive measurements, while the cyan and blue bars show the less sensitive measurements. Complex field lines follow the 'wrist', 'palm' and 'fingers' of the hand, possibly helping to identify elongated finger-like structures.

The amount of polarisation indicated by the bar length is quite high and reaches the maximum expected from theoretical studies. To reach this power, the magnetic field must be very flat and uniform, which means that there is very little turbulence in these regions of the pulsar wind nebula.

Image description.
1- A composite image of a pulsar wind nebula that looks like a ghostly purple hand with glowing fingertips. The three longest fingertips of the hand shape point to our upper right, or 1:00 on a clock face. There, a small, speckled, orange and yellow cloud appears to glow or glow like embers. This orange cloud is part of the remnants of the supernova explosion that created the pulsar. The background of the stars is captured in infrared light.

2- The second image is identical to the first one, this time the magnetic field vectors are coloured orange, cyan and blue. Their placement follows the structure of the hand, showing the precision of the measurements.