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Credit & Copyright: Detlef Hartmann
Explanation:
Are your eyes good enough to see the Crab Nebula expand?
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.
Over the past decade, its expansion has been documented in this
stunning
time-lapse movie.
In each year from 2008 to 2022, an image was produced with the same
telescope and camera from a remote observatory in
Austria.
The sharp, processed frames even reveal the
dynamic energetic emission surrounding the rapidly
spinning pulsar at the center.
The Crab Nebula
lies about 6,500 light-years away
toward the constellation
of the Bull
(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: