Explosive Aftermath: Sluggish neutron star puzzles astronomers

Even if astronomers don’t quite know how stars blow up, they thought that they at least understood what those stellar explosions leave behind. But an X-ray–emitting object at the heart of a young supernova remnant called RCW 103 doesn’t fit the textbook view.

SUPER VIEW. X-ray image of the supernova remnant RCW 103. Central blue dot indicates location of a sluggish neutron star created by the explosion.