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Published August 29, 1991 | public
Journal Article

Unusual interaction of the high-velocity pulsar PSR1757–24 with the supernova remnant G5.4–1.2

Abstract

The peculiar fan-shaped morphology of the galactic radio source G5.4–1.2 has prompted much speculation about its nature. Here we report high-resolution observations obtained with the Very Large Array, which reveal a compact, highly polarized, flat-spectrum radio nebula on the western edge of G5.4–1.2. We also confirm the presence of a 125-ms pulsar, PSR1757–24, associated with the radio source, and find that it is located near the centre of the newly discovered nebula. We argue that the pulsar is associated with G5.4–1.2, which we identify as a supernova remnant, and that it was born with a high enough velocity, ~ 2,000 kms^(−1), for it to overtake the decelerating supernova shell, creating the peripheral radio nebula. The fortuitous near-coincidence of the pulsar velocity with the shell velocity accounts for the unusual overall shape of the remnant. If the large velocity of the pulsar is confirmed by future observation of its proper motion, the possibility of asymmetric supernova explosions must be taken seriously, and other previously unsuspected associations between pulsars and supernova remnants may emerge.

Additional Information

© 1991 Nature Publishing Group. Received 2 July; accepted 23 July 1991. We thank S. Thorsett for the use of his timing data. M. McKinnon, J. Navarro, G. Vasisht and W. Deich for help in acquiring and reducing the VLA pulsar data and J. Taylor for the use of the Mark III timing machine. We thank A. Achterberg, R. Blandford, O. Bhattacharya, J. Caswell and F. Lamb for discussion, and O. Manchester for communicating his results before publication. The VLA is operated by the National Radio Astronomy Observatory by agreement with the NSF. D.A.F. is supported by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada through an NSERC postdoctoral fellowship. S.R.K.'s pulsar work at the VLA is supported by the Perkin Fund. S.R.K. thanks his hosts at the Institute for Theoretical Physics.

Additional details

Created:
August 22, 2023
Modified:
October 23, 2023