3C 58 or 3C58 is a
pulsar (designation PSR J0205+6449) and
supernova remnant
A supernova remnant (SNR) is the structure resulting from the explosion of a star in a supernova. The supernova remnant is bounded by an expanding shock wave, and consists of ejected material expanding from the explosion, and the interstellar mat ...
(
pulsar wind nebula
A pulsar wind nebula (PWN, plural PWNe), sometimes called a plerion (derived from the Greek "πλήρης", ''pleres'', meaning "full"), is a type of nebula sometimes found inside the shell of a supernova remnant (SNR), powered by winds generate ...
) within the
Milky Way
The Milky Way is the galaxy that includes our Solar System, with the name describing the galaxy's appearance from Earth: a hazy band of light seen in the night sky formed from stars that cannot be individually distinguished by the naked eye. ...
that is possibly associated with the
supernova of 1181. There are, however, signs that indicate that it could be several thousand years old, and thus not associated with that supernova. The object is listed as No. 58 in the
Third Cambridge Catalogue of Radio Sources
The Third Cambridge Catalogue of Radio Sources (3C) is an astronomical catalogue of celestial radio sources detected originally at 159 MHz, and subsequently at 178 MHz.
History
3C
The catalogue was published in 1959 by members of the ...
.
The pulsar is notable for its very high rate of cooling, which is unexplained by standard theories of
neutron star
A neutron star is the collapsed core of a massive supergiant star, which had a total mass of between 10 and 25 solar masses, possibly more if the star was especially metal-rich. Except for black holes and some hypothetical objects (e.g. w ...
formation. It is hypothesized that extreme conditions in the star's interior cause a high
neutrino
A neutrino ( ; denoted by the Greek letter ) is a fermion (an elementary particle with spin of ) that interacts only via the weak interaction and gravity. The neutrino is so named because it is electrically neutral and because its rest mass ...
flux, which carries away the energy so that the star cools.
3C 58 has been proposed as a possible
quark star
A quark star is a hypothetical type of compact, exotic star, where extremely high core temperature and pressure has forced nuclear particles to form quark matter, a continuous state of matter consisting of free quarks.
Background
Some massive ...
.
It is located 2° northeast of
ε Cassiopeiae and is estimated to be 10,000
light-years away. Its rotation period is 65.7
ms (so PSR J0205+6449 does not belong to the class of
millisecond pulsar
A millisecond pulsar (MSP) is a pulsar with a rotational period less than about 10 milliseconds. Millisecond pulsars have been detected in radio, X-ray, and gamma ray portions of the electromagnetic spectrum. The leading theory for the origin of ...
s).
References
External links
*
Article about 3C58What is known about 3C 58Image from Aladin
Quark stars
Pulsars
058
Cassiopeia (constellation)
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