Chikang Li brings the Crab Nebula to the lab
Senior research scientist Chikang Li wants to experiment with the stars. Intrigued by a curious “kink” phenomenon observed in the Crab Nebula, an interstellar cloud of gas and dust that formed in the wake of a supernova explosion, he has been looking for answers. Images from the Chandra X-ray observatory show that a jet of plasma pouring straight out from the neutron star at the center of the nebula appears to change direction every few years, without changing its structure. Why? Scientists have hypothesized that magnetic fields with the right properties could explain this behavior, but Li wanted proof. “How do you design an experiment on Earth to explain mysteries that are happening 6,500 light years away, and stretching over 13 light years of space?” he asks. “Traditional astrophysics is based on observation. Typically after you make an observation, you build a theoretical model, you do some numerical simulations. But that’s it....