NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope 2024 image of the Crab Nebula, with compass arrows, scale bar, and color key for reference.The north and east compass arrows show the orientation of the image on the sky. Note that the relationship between north and east on the sky (as seen from below) is flipped relative to direction arrows on a map of the ground (as seen from above).The scale bar is labeled in light-years and arcminutes. One light-year is equal to about 5.88 trillion miles or 9.46 trillion kilometers. An arcminute is a measure of angular distance on the sky. There are 60 arcminutes in a degree. The full Moon has an angular diameter of about 30 arcminutes.The color key shows which filters were used when the Wide Field Camera 3 instrument collected the light. The color of each filter name is the visible-light color used to represent the light that passed through that filter.The north and east compass arrows show the orientation of the image on the sky. Note that the relationship between north and east on the sky (as seen from below) is flipped relative to direction arrows on a map of the ground (as seen from above).The scale bar is labeled in light-years and arcminutes. One light-year is equal to about 5.88 trillion miles or 9.46 trillion kilometers. An arcminute is a measure of angular distance on the sky. There are 60 arcminutes in a degree. The full Moon has an angular diameter of about 30 arcminutes.The color key shows which filters were used when the Wide Field Camera 3 instrument collected the light. The color of each filter name is the visible-light color used to represent the light that passed through that filter.The Hubble image was created from HST data from proposal 17500 (W. Blair)
Image Description: Hubble Space Telescope image of the Crab nebula, annotated with additional information. At the bottom right are compass arrows indicating the orientation of the image on the sky. The north arrow points in the 12 o’clock direction. The east arrow points toward 9 o’clock. At the lower left is one scale bar labeled 4 light-years and 2 arcminutes. The length of the scale bar is about one third the total width of the image. At the upper left is label text reading Crab Nebula M1, HST WFC3/UVIS – 2024. Below this is the color key, with filter names appearing in the color assigned to them in the image. F502N is blue, F547M is cyan, F631N is green, and F673N is red.
Image Description: Hubble Space Telescope image of the Crab nebula, annotated with additional information. At the bottom right are compass arrows indicating the orientation of the image on the sky. The north arrow points in the 12 o’clock direction. The east arrow points toward 9 o’clock. At the lower left is one scale bar labeled 4 light-years and 2 arcminutes. The length of the scale bar is about one third the total width of the image. At the upper left is label text reading Crab Nebula M1, HST WFC3/UVIS – 2024. Below this is the color key, with filter names appearing in the color assigned to them in the image. F502N is blue, F547M is cyan, F631N is green, and F673N is red.
| Object Name | Crab Nebula, M1, NGC 1952 |
|---|---|
| Object Description | Supernova Remnant |
| Release Date | March 23, 2026 |
| Science Release | NASA’s Hubble Revisits Crab Nebula to Track 25 Years of Expansion |
| Credit | Image: NASA, ESA, STScI, William Blair (JHU); Image Processing: Joseph DePasquale (STScI) |
| Last UpdatedLocationContact | Mar 23, 2026NASA Goddard Space Flight CenterMediaClaire Andreoli NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center Greenbelt, Maryland [email protected] |
| Last Updated | Mar 23, 2026 |
| Location | NASA Goddard Space Flight Center |
| Contact | MediaClaire Andreoli NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center Greenbelt, Maryland [email protected] |
| Related Terms | Hubble Space Telescope, Crab Nebula, Emission Nebulae, Nebulae, Neutron Stars, Pulsars, Supernova Remnants |
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