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Credit & Copyright: Michael Sherick
Explanation:
The Crab Nebula is cataloged as M1, the first object on
Charles
Messier's
famous 18th century list of things which are not comets.
In fact,
the Crab
is now known to be a
supernova remnant,
debris from the death explosion of a massive star,
witnessed
by astronomers in the year 1054.
This sharp, ground-based
telescopic view combines broadband color data with
narrowband data that tracks emission from ionized sulfur, hydrogen, and
oxygen atoms to explore the tangled filaments within
the still expanding cloud.
One of the most exotic objects known to modern astronomers,
the Crab Pulsar,
a neutron star spinning 30 times a second,
is visible as a bright spot near
the nebula's center.
Like a cosmic dynamo,
this collapsed remnant of the stellar core
powers the Crab's emission across the electromagnetic spectrum.
Spanning about 12 light-years, the Crab Nebula is a mere
6,500 light-years away in the
constellation Taurus.
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NASA Web Site Statements, Warnings, and Disclaimers
NASA Official: Jay Norris. Specific rights apply.
A service of: LHEA at NASA / GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.
Based on Astronomy Picture
Of the Day
Publications with keywords: M 1 - Crab Nebula
Publications with words: M 1 - Crab Nebula
See also: