Vela Pulsar Jet: Nasa Movie Captures 'Space Ship' Star (VIDEO) (PICTURES)

Nasa Movie Captures 'Space Ship' Pulsar
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Nasa has captured a rare video of a pulsar jet star in deep space, which looks unsettlingly like a giant, evil space ship. In our minds.

The pulsar jet star Vela is located about 1,000 light years from Earth, and was formed when a star collapsed at the end of its life.

The neutron star itself is just 12 miles across, but is incredibly dense. As it rotates 11 times per second, or faster than the rotor of a helicopter, it spews out jets of particles at about 70% of the speed of light.

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The jet streams are 0.7 light years long, and seen from Earth appear to create a 'halo' around the star in the shape of a futuristic space ship.

The new images of the star were taken by Nasa's Chandra X-ray Observatory in 2010, and have been animated to show how the star wobbles and spins as it completes its violent contortions.

The video is our second glimpse at Vela, after the first movie was released in 2003.

Nasa also unveiled a wider-angle view of the star and its position in the Milky Way:

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