Image of the Day: Crab Nebula

Captured by NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope, the Crab Nebula pictured above is the result of a supernova from a star that had been dead for 6,500 years by the time the light explosion reached Earth when it was first noted by chroniclers in 1054 A.D.

Chinese astronomers first discovered the supernova as a “guest star” in 1054 just above the horn of the constellation Taurus. The supernova could be seen by the naked eye for three weeks before it faded back into darkness. In 1731, English astronomer John Bevis observed a cloudy glowing blob in the sky exactly where the astronomers saw the “guest star” 700 years ago. The cloud of gas and dust Bevis discovered was later noted as the Crab Nebula, which resulted from the supernova that exploded a cloud of debris into space in 1054.

The Crab Nebula is 10 light-years across, expanding by 1500 kilometers per second, made up of extremely complex filaments that appear to have less mass and a higher speed than expelled from the original supernova. The filaments are expanding away from the center of the explosion faster than scientists expect.

At the center of the nebula, lies a pulsar, a neutron star as massive as the Sun that rotates at 30 times per second. Pulsars emit radiation across the entire electromagnetic spectrum and are typically what remains after a star explodes if there is not enough mass to form a black hole. Astronomers have used the pulses of radiation emitted from the Crab Pulsar to study the Sun’s corona and the atmospheres of Saturn’s moon, Titan, based on how radio and X-ray waves passed through or were blocked.

Early observations made in China 1,000 years ago date the Crab Pulsar and supernova explosion at 7,461 years old, which is the only pulsar’s age scientists know precisely.

This dramatic image of the Crab Nebula captured by NASA can be seen with a telescope or pair of binoculars on a clear, dark night.

Source: Gizmodo