... The Crab Pulsar, a city-sized, magnetized neutron star spinning 30 times a second, lies at the center of this composite image of the inner region of the well-known Crab Nebula. ... About 8000 years ago, a star in our Galaxy exploded. ... The beautiful Trifid Nebula (aka M20), a photogenic study in cosmic contrasts, lies about 5,000 light-years away toward the nebula rich constellation Sagittarius. ... Yesterday, at about 10 am Universal Time, Mars and Earth passed closer than in nearly 60,000 years....