Peering deep into the core of the Crab Nebula, this close-up image reveals the beating heart of one of the most historic and intensively studied remnants of a supernova, an exploding star. The inner region sends out clock-like pulses of radiation and tsunamis of charged particles embedded in magnetic fields.
The neutron star at the very center of the Crab Nebula has about the same mass as the sun but compressed into an incredibly dense sphere that is only a few miles across. Spinning 30 times a second, the neutron star shoots out detectable beams of energy that make it look like it's pulsating.
The NASA Hubble Space Telescope snapshot is centered on the region around the neutron star (the rightmost of the two bright stars near the center of this image) and the expanding, tattered, filamentary debris surrounding it. Hubble's sharp view captures the intricate details of glowing gas, shown in red, that forms a swirling medley of cavities and filaments. Inside this shell is a ghostly blue glow that is radiation given off by electrons spiraling at nearly the speed of light in the powerful magnetic field around the crushed stellar core.
The neutron star is a showcase for extreme physical processes and unimaginable cosmic violence. Bright wisps are moving outward from the neutron star at half the speed of light to form an expanding ring. It is thought that these wisps originate from a shock wave that turns the high-speed wind from the neutron star into extremely energetic particles.
When this "heartbeat" radiation signature was first discovered in 1968, astronomers realized they had discovered a new type of astronomical object. Now astronomers know it's the archetype of a class of supernova remnants called pulsars – or rapidly spinning neutron stars. These interstellar "lighthouse beacons" are invaluable for doing observational experiments on a variety of astronomical phenomena, including measuring gravity waves.
Observations of the Crab supernova were recorded by Chinese astronomers in 1054 A.D. The nebula, bright enough to be visible in amateur telescopes, is located 6,500 light-years away in the constellation Taurus.
Credits
NASA and ESA;Acknowledgment: J. Hester (ASU) and M. Weisskopf (NASA/MSFC)
| About The Object | |
|---|---|
| Object Name | Crab Nebula, M1, NGC 1952 |
| Object Description | Supernova Remnant |
| R.A. Position | 05h 34m 32s |
| Dec. Position | 22° 00' 52" |
| Constellation | Taurus |
| Distance | 6,500 light-years (2,000 parsecs) |
| About The Data | |
| Data Description | Data were provided by the HST proposals and : J. Hester and J. Foy (ASU), and J. Morse (RPI); and proposal : M. Weisskopf, A. Tennant, and C. Wilson-Hodge (NASA/MSFC), J. Arons (UC Berkeley), R. Blandford, R. Buehler, S. Funk, and Y. Uchiyama (Stanford University), P. Caraveo, A. De Luca, and M. Tavani (INAF), E. Costa (CNR), C. Ferrigno (Integral Science Data Center, Switzerland), D. Horns (DESY, Germany), A. Lobanov (Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy, Germany), E. Max (Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory), and R. Mignani (University College London). |
| Instrument | HST>ACS/WFC |
| Exposure Dates | August 8, 2003, September 6 and 15, 2005, and January 10, 2013 |
| Filters | F550M (V) and F606W (V) + POLV60 |
| About The Image | |
| Color Info | This image is a composite of separate exposures acquired by the ACS/WFC instrument. Several filters were used to sample various wavelengths. The color results from assigning different hues (colors) to each monochromatic (grayscale) image associated with an individual filter. In this case, the assigned colors represent not only changes in different filters, but also the same filters taken on different exposure dates to highlight features that change over time. |
| Compass Image |  |
| About The Object | |
|---|---|
| Object Name | A name or catalog number that astronomers use to identify an astronomical object. |
| Object Description | The type of astronomical object. |
| R.A. Position | Right ascension – analogous to longitude – is one component of an object's position. |
| Dec. Position | Declination – analogous to latitude – is one component of an object's position. |
| Constellation | One of 88 recognized regions of the celestial sphere in which the object appears. |
| Distance | The physical distance from Earth to the astronomical object. Distances within our solar system are usually measured in Astronomical Units (AU). Distances between stars are usually measured in light-years. Interstellar distances can also be measured in parsecs. |
| Dimensions | The physical size of the object or the apparent angle it subtends on the sky. |
| About The Data | |
| Data Description |
|
| Instrument | The science instrument used to produce the data. |
| Exposure Dates | The date(s) that the telescope made its observations and the total exposure time. |
| Filters | The camera filters that were used in the science observations. |
| About The Image | |
| Image Credit | The primary individuals and institutions responsible for the content. |
| Publication Date | The date and time the release content became public. |
| Color Info | A brief description of the methods used to convert telescope data into the color image being presented. |
| Orientation | The rotation of the image on the sky with respect to the north pole of the celestial sphere. |
