3C 58 or 3C58 is a

pulsar A pulsar (''pulsating star, on the model of quasar'') is a highly magnetized rotating neutron star that emits beams of electromagnetic radiation out of its Poles of astronomical bodies#Magnetic poles, magnetic poles. This radiation can be obse ...

(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 or Milky Way Galaxy is the galaxy that includes the Solar System, with the name describing the #Appearance, galaxy's appearance from Earth: a hazy band of light seen in the night sky formed from stars in other arms of the galax ...

. 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 ...

. It is located 2° northeast of ε Cassiopeiae and is estimated to be 10,000

light-year A light-year, alternatively spelled light year (ly or lyr), is a unit of length used to express astronomical distances and is equal to exactly , which is approximately 9.46 trillion km or 5.88 trillion mi. As defined by the International Astr ...

s 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 pulsar, radio, X-ray pulsar, X-ray, and gamma ray portions of the electromagnetic spectrum. The leadi ...

s). The pulsar is notable for its very high rate of cooling, which is unexplained by standard models of

neutron star A neutron star is the gravitationally collapsed Stellar core, core of a massive supergiant star. It results from the supernova explosion of a stellar evolution#Massive star, massive star—combined with gravitational collapse—that compresses ...

formation. It is hypothesized that extreme conditions in the star's interior cause a high

neutrino A neutrino ( ; denoted by the Greek letter ) is an elementary particle that interacts via the weak interaction and gravity. The neutrino is so named because it is electrically neutral and because its rest mass is so small ('' -ino'') that i ...

flux Flux describes any effect that appears to pass or travel (whether it actually moves or not) through a surface or substance. Flux is a concept in applied mathematics and vector calculus which has many applications in physics. For transport phe ...

, which carries away the energy so that the star cools. 3C 58 has been proposed as a possible quark star (or

strange star A strange star, also called a strange quark star, is a hypothetical compact astronomical object, a quark star made of strange quark matter. Strange stars might exist without regard to the Bodmer–Witten assumption of stability at near-zero te ...

). The age of the 3C 58 remnant has been measured by a number of independent methods. The proper motion of the expanding optical shell of 3C 58 has been measured three times, always with an indicated age of around 3500 years, with this being the direct and distance-independent measure. Estimates from the expansion measurements of the filamentary structure in the radio of the synchrotron nebula suggest the age to roughly 7000 years, independent of distance. Several methods for estimating the remnant's age have proven to have such a large uncertainty as to not be useful, with these methods including those involving the pulsar energetics, the swept-up mass, the pulsar offset from the center of 3C 58, and the changing of the nebular radio brightness. The spin-down age of the pulsar is 5380 years, while the cooling age of the neutron star is >5000 years. Taking all available evidence, 3C 58 has an age somewhere from 3500 to 5500 years. From 1971 to 2021, 3C 58 has been speculatively connected to the Supernova of 1181 AD, as reported by Chinese and Japanese observers. The basis for this was that 3C 58 was the only supernova remnant known in the large old historical region for the SN 1181. However, multiple factors, including the age (3500 to 5500 years) and energetics of the remnant, all point to 3C 58 as not being the remnant of SN 1181. Further, an analysis of the old East Asian reports used added information on the reported proximity to several old Chinese constellations, and concluded that 3C 58 is at a sky position far outside the error region of the observed SN 1181. A second conclusive argument is that the real remnant of SN 1181 was discovered by American amateur astronomer Dana Patchik, designated Pa 30. Pa 30 is known from multiple independent measures to be a supernova remnant with an age close to 800 years, and it is inside the modern sky position for the 1181 supernova. So 3C 58 is not the remnant left behind by the 1181 supernova.

References

External links

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Article about 3C58What is known about 3C 58Image from Aladin
{{Stars of Cassiopeia, state=collapsed Quark stars Pulsars 058 Cassiopeia (constellation)

See also

References

External links