Chandra Release - February 18, 2014

Visual Description: IGR J11014-6103

The composite image of the pulsar IGR J11014-6103 features a dark background, which provides a contrasting backdrop for the bright stars and nebulae in the image. This image is glowing in bright purple, white and a hint of emerald green.  There are two main shapes visible in the image, one larger cloud on the upper left side and one much smaller zig zag shape and bright white source on the lower-right side. There are many stars visible in the image, ranging in size and brightness. An extraordinary jet trailing behind a runaway pulsar is seen in the image that contains data from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory (colored in the purple), radio data from the Australia Compact Telescope Array (green), and optical data from the 2MASS survey (white). The pulsar — a spinning neutron star — and its tail are found in the lower right of this image. The tail stretches for 37 light years, making it the longest jet ever seen from an object in the Milky Way galaxy.