This diagram gives an explanation of the features seen in the previous image. The distance scale is shown by the bar at the lower left, which represents 10,000 astronomical units. One astronomical unit, approximately the distance between Earth and the Sun, is equivalent to 150 million kilometers or 93 million miles.
At the center of the image is the pulsar itself and the newly discovered knot of emission. The two largest arrows indicate the polar axis of the pulsar. A jet of x-ray emission has been detected (in other observations) along this direction. The wisps seen above and to the right of the pulsar may form a ring-like 'halo' (the dashed oval shape), which is foreshortened because it is tipped with respect to our line of sight. It is thought that a polar jet of pulsar wind streams through the center of this halo, and that the ring may represent the interface or boundary between this stream and another wind that blows outwards from the equatorial region of the pulsar.
Credit: J. Hester and P. Scowen (Arizona State University), and NASA
