M1: 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.
Want to watch the Crab Nebula expand?
Check out
this video (vimeo) animation
comparing an
image
of M1 taken in 1999 at the European Southern Observatory, with
this one, taken in 2012 at the Mt. Lemmon Sky Center.
Background stars were used to register the two images.
The Crab Nebula lies about 6,500 light-years away in the
constellation Taurus.
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.
