A stunning new image taken by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope reveals the ‘pulsing heart’ of one of the most beautiful and well-studied objects in the night sky, the Crab Nebula.
This Hubble image shows the central region of the Crab Nebula. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble / Judy Schmidt, www.geckzilla.com / M. Weisskopf, Marshall Space Flight Center.
The Crab Nebula is the remnant of a type II supernova that was first observed by Chinese astronomers on July 4, 1054 CE, as a ‘guest star.’
The object became about six times brighter than Venus and was visible in daylight for 23 days. Japanese, Arabic, and Native American stargazers also recorded seeing the mystery star.
The Crab Nebula lies 6,500 light-years away in the constellation Taurus. It is bright enough to be visible in amateur telescopes, and was first identified in 1731 by English astronomer, doctor and electrical researcher John Bevis.
In 1758, while searching for a comet, French astronomer Charles Messier re-discovered the hazy nebula. He later added the object to his celestial catalog as Messier 1 (M1), marking it as a ‘fake comet.’
Also known as NGC 1952, the Crab Nebula derived its common name from its appearance in a drawing made by Irish astronomer Lord Rosse in 1844.
In 1928, American astronomer Edwin Hubble first proposed associating the nebula to the Chinese ‘guest star’ of 1054.
The unstoppable collapse of the Crab Nebula’s progenitor star led to the formation of a fast-spinning neutron star named the Crab Pulsar, which lurks at the heart of the nebula.
Also known as PSR B0531+21, the pulsar itself is only about 15.5 miles across but contains the mass of nearly 1 million Earths.
Spinning approximately 30 times a second, it emits beams of radio waves that, like a lighthouse, produce flashes each time it rotates.
This energetic activity unleashes wisp-like waves that form an expanding ring, most easily seen to the upper right of the pulsar.
This image was obtained with Hubble’s Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS), using just a single visible-light filter (broad V-band filter F550M).
