---
title: "NASA Image Shows Tiny Star Unleashing Furious Beam of Antimatter"
description: "Wanna feel small? Peep these latest photos from NASA that show an x-ray beam trillions of kilometers long coming out of a collapsing star. "
date: "2022-03-15"
modified: "2022-03-15"
authors:
  - name: "Noor Al-Sibai"
    job_title: "Senior Staff Writer"
    link: "https://futurism.com/authors/nooralsibai"
url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/nasa-antimatter-image"
categories:
  - "NASA"
  - "Science & Energy"
  - "Space"
tags:
  - "Antimatter"
  - "Chandra X-ray Observatory"
  - "pulsars"
  - "the digest"
---

# NASA Image Shows Tiny Star Unleashing Furious Beam of Antimatter

![Wanna feel small? Peep these latest photos from NASA that show an x-ray beam trillions of kilometers long coming out of a collapsing star. ](<https://futurism.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/nasa-antimatter-image.jpg>)
*\<em\>Image: Getty Images\</em\>*

## Anti-What?

Wanna feel infinitesimally small?

Then have a look at these latest photos from NASA's Chandra X-Ray Observatory, which [show an x-ray beam](<https://chandra.si.edu/press/22_releases/press_031422.html>) made up of both matter and antimatter 40 trillion kilometers long, flowing out of a collapsing star.

The source of the beam, the rotating and collapsing remains of a star otherwise known as a pulsar, is located about 1,600 light years from Earth and is considered "relatively small" even though it's roughly the size of a city, according to NASA.

It rotates three times per second and is moving through space at roughly a million miles per hour.

As [NASA notes in a press release](<https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/chandra/images/tiny-star-unleashes-gargantuan-beam-of-matter-and-antimatter.html>), the gargantuan x-ray beam may help scientists understand why the Milky Way is practically bursting at the seams with antimatter, the antithesis to matter that has puzzled scientists for [almost a century](<https://home.cern/science/physics/antimatter>).

https://twitter.com/chandraxray/status/1503376706849046532?s=20&t=CQD5i-zpTcCuugwh6lMaGg

## This Could Be Huge

Though scientists know what antimatter is in theory, they still don't know how it got into our galaxy.

But in [a forthcoming ](<https://arxiv.org/abs/2202.03506>)[study](<https://arxiv.org/abs/2202.03506>) to be published in the *Astrophysical Journal*, Stanford University researchers Martjin de Vries and Roger Romani suggest they may have found one answer: positrons, the antimatter equivalent of electrons, may originate from energy fields generated by rapidly spinning pulsars like the one pictured by the Chandra observatory.

That's in stark contrast to prevailing theories that positrons generally have trouble leaking out from pulsars and therefore can't account for the abundance of antimatter in our galaxy, according to NASA.

"It's amazing that a pulsar that's only ten miles across can create a structure so big that we can see it from thousands of light-years away," said de Vries in the statement.

"With the same relative size, if the filament stretched from New York to Los Angeles the pulsar would be about 100 times smaller than the tiniest object visible to the naked eye," he added.

It's a discovery involving some truly mind-boggling numbers. But considering that some physicists believe there may be [an entire antimatter universe that moves backwards in time](<https://physicsworld.com/a/our-universe-has-antimatter-partner-on-the-other-side-of-the-big-bang-say-physicists/>) from the Big Bang, it doesn't seem all that far-fetched.

**READ MORE:** [Tiny Star Unleashes Gargantuan Beam of Matter and Antimatter](<https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/chandra/images/tiny-star-unleashes-gargantuan-beam-of-matter-and-antimatter.html>) \[NASA\]

**More on antimatter:** *[Physicists Find Particles That Switch Between Matter and Antimatter](<https://futurism.com/the-byte/particles-switch-matter-antimatter>)*

## Author
At Futurism, I've often been drawn to unpacking the narratives that underlie technological, scientific and medical progress, with a special interest in areas of conflict and ambiguity that end up setting agendas and steering the fates of both elites and the hoi polloi. I'm a committed generalist, but I often find myself returning to work involving NASA and the private space sector, the effects of AI on media and society, and the mechanics of the pharmaceutical industry, with a specific focus on the spread of GLP-1 drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy. Prior to Futurism, I worked for publications ranging from Media Matters and Truthdig to Raw Story and Bustle. I'm also the author of "Myspace Scene Queens," a 2024 title in Instar Books' acclaimed "Remember the Internet" series. My work at Futurism has been cited by outlets including the New Yorker, Slate, Nieman Lab, the Verge, the MIT Technology Review, the Sunday Times, and the Daily Beast. I grew up in North Carolina, attended the University of North Carolina at Asheville, and now live in Brooklyn, New York. In my free time, I'm an avid reader and music fan; you can probably find me at a local poetry reading, concert, underground rave, or DJ set. I'm the proud parent of an ineffable orange cat named Mee-Mow.

### Author social links  
[Bluesky](<https://bsky.app/profile/noorfromfuturism.bsky.social>)