In 1054, some 6,500 years after the fact, light from a bright supernova reached Earth, mystifying Chinese astronomers and others who described a “new star” in the constellation Taurus. Modern astronomers now know the explosion left behind an ultra-dense pulsar at the heart of a vast cloud of stellar debris, a highly-magnetised neutron star that rotates once every 33 milliseconds and shoots out polar jets of matter and antimatter along with powerful solar winds.
A new multi-wavelength image of the Crab, combining X-rays, ultraviolet, optical, infrared and radio emissions captured by five telescopes, reveals extraordinary detail giving astronomers fresh insights into the complex processes still at work in the evolving aftermath of the supernova blast, including a ghostly view of the pulsar at the heart of the nebula. Views in isolated wavelengths, as well as the composite image, are posted on the Chandra X-ray Observatory’s website.
