Composite Crab
Explanation:
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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.
The spectacular picture combines optical data (red) from the
Hubble Space Telescope
and x-ray images (blue) from the
Chandra
Observatory, also used in the popular
Crab
Pulsar movies.
Like a
cosmic
dynamo the
pulsar powers the x-ray
and optical emission from the nebula, accelerating
charged particles and producing the eerie, glowing x-ray jets.
Ring-like structures are x-ray emitting regions where
the high energy particles slam into the nebular material.
The innermost ring is about a light-year across.
With more mass than
the
Sun and the density of an
atomic nucleus,
the spinning pulsar is the collapsed core of a massive star
that exploded, while the nebula is the
expanding remnant of the star's outer layers.
The supernova explosion was witnessed in
the year 1054.
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.
