A New HST Measurement of the Crab Pulsar Proper Motion

dc.creatorCaraveo, Patrizia A.
dc.creatorMignani, Roberto P.
dc.date1999-01-05
dc.date.accessioned2026-07-07T02:29:52Z
dc.date.available2026-07-07T02:29:52Z
dc.descriptionWe have used a set of archived HST/WFPC2 exposures of the inner regions of the Crab Nebula to obtain a new measurement of the pulsar proper motion, the first after the original work of Wyckoff & Murray, more than 20 years ago. Our measurement of the pulsar displacement, mu = 18 +/- 3 mas/yr, agrees well with the value obtained previously. This is noteworthy, since the data we have used span less than 2 years, as opposed to the 77 years required in the previous work. With a position angle of 292 +/- 10 deg, the proper motion vector appears aligned with the axis of symmetry of the inner Crab nebula, as defined by the direction of the X-ray jet observed by ROSAT. Indeed, if the neutron star rotation is to be held responsible both for the X-ray jet and for the observed symmetry, the Crab could provide an example of alignment between spin axis and proper motion.
dc.description4 pages, LaTex, 2 Postscript figures. Astronomy&Astrophysics-in press
dc.identifierhttps://arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/9901031
dc.identifierhttp://arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/9901031
dc.identifier.urihttp://salesiana.dossiersoluciones.com/handle/123456789/13644
dc.subjectAstrophysics
dc.titleA New HST Measurement of the Crab Pulsar Proper Motion
dc.typetext

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