NASA has unveiled a breathtaking new image showing what appears to be a massive “cosmic hand” stretching across 150 light-years of space, created by one of the galaxy’s most powerful electromagnetic generators.

The striking composite combines X-ray data from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory with fresh radio observations from Australia’s telescope array, giving scientists their most detailed view yet of pulsar B1509-58 and the spectacular nebula it powers.

The “cosmic hand” spans 150 light-years — nearly 900 trillion miles — across space while at the heart of the display lies a neutron star just 12 miles across, spinning nearly seven times per second. 4

A pulsar is a type of neutron star, which is the dense, collapsed core left behind after a massive star explodes in a supernova.

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