Objects in space are governed by many factors, including gravity, which determines things like where a star forms, how big it gets, and much more. From there, these forces create the planets that orbit around stars, typically located along a disk-shaped path with the other planets.

Even zooming out from our solar system and looking at the whole Milky Way, millions of stars and planets all form in the same general shape orbiting around the massive black hole at the center. While stars and other things in space can form outside of this disk, it is far less common.

That is why the astronomers who spotted a supernova, and then a pulsar, well outside the normal area where they are found in the Milky Way, it was surprising.

These astronomers published their findings in the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics.

Pulsars are a special type of neutron star that pulses (hence the name), and these neutron stars likely form as the end product of a supernovae. The supernovae that they spotted is made from the plasma that is released during an explosion, which then interacts with other stellar material in the area.

The system that contains these two objects was named Calvera, which is from the The Magnificent Seven. It is located 37 degrees above what is known as the galactic plane, which is where the vast majority of stars in the Milky Way orbit. The system is 6500 light-years from us, with the supernova remnant and the pulsar being about 13,000 and 16,500 light-years apart from each other.

Based on this information, the researchers estimate that the explosion that created the supernovae took place 10,000-20,000 years ago. In a statement, lead author Emanuele Greco from the Instituto Nazionale di Astrofisica, said:

“Massive stars – that is, at least eight times more massive than the Sun – form almost exclusively in the galactic plane, where the gas density is highest and favors star birth. Finding their remnants at such distances from the plane is extremely rare. Our analysis has allowed us to more precisely estimate the distance, age, and even the characteristics of the possible progenitor star that gave rise to both the Calvera pulsar and its supernova remnant.”

One of the reasons that this is so unexpected is because most of the gas, dust, and other materials that are needed to make stars and planets is located within the galactic plane. Clearly, however, there was enough in this system to generate the unexpected objects. Greco went on to say:

“Our study shows that even the quietest and seemingly empty regions of the galaxy can harbor extreme processes. Not only have we precisely constrained the physical properties of the Calvera system, but we have also demonstrated that, locally, it is possible to find densities sufficient to generate X-ray and gamma-ray emissions even very far from the galactic plane. This discovery invites us to look with new eyes at the Milky Way’s peripheries.”

While massive, these objects are hard to spot and astronomers often rely on luck for them to be picked up while using instruments to look at more distant areas of the universe. Finding a system so far outside the galactic plane, yet still relatively close to Earth, will allow astronomers to study it further in the future.

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