The Incredible Expanding Crab
Explanation:
The Crab Nebula is cataloged as M1, the first on
Charles Messier's
famous list of things which are not comets.
In fact,
the Crab is
now known to be a supernova remnant, an expanding
cloud of debris from the explosion of a massive star.
The violent birth of the Crab was
witnessed
by astronomers in the year 1054.
Roughly 10 light-years across today, the nebula is still expanding
at a rate of over 1,000 kilometers per second.
Flipping between two images made nearly 30 years apart, this
animation clearly demonstrates the expansion.
The smaller Crab was recorded as a
photographic image made in 1973
using the
Kitt Peak
National Observatory 4-meter telescope in 1973.
The
expanded Crab was made this year with the Kitt Peak
Visitor Center's
0.4-meter telescope and digital camera.
Background stars were used to register the two images.
Authors & editors:
Robert Nemiroff
(MTU) &
Jerry Bonnell
(USRA)
NASA Web Site Statements, Warnings,
and Disclaimers
NASA Official: Jay Norris.
Specific
rights apply.
A service of:
LHEA at
NASA /
GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.
