Crab Nebula – Astronomy Now

Webb space telescope turns its infrared eye on the Crab Nebula and its remnant pulsar

7 November 2023 Astronomy Now

Taking a fresh look at the Crab Nebula, the James Webb Space Telescope provides new insights into the titanic explosion that blew a star apart and left a spinning pulsar in its wake.

X-ray studies reveal new details about the pulsar-powered Crab Nebula

10 April 2023 Astronomy Now

A detailed map of the Crab Nebula’s magnetic field shows areas of turbulence are more patchy and asymmetrical than previously expected, an indication current models need refinement.

The Crab Nebula: shreds of a supernova

8 December 2022 Mark Armstrong

It’s perhaps a surprising but definitely disappointing fact that no person alive has seen the titanic explosion of a star as a supernova in our own Milky Way Galaxy.

Observatories combine to crack open the Crab Nebula

12 May 2017 Astronomy Now

Astronomers have produced a highly detailed image of the Crab Nebula, by combining data from telescopes spanning nearly the entire breadth of the electromagnetic spectrum, from radio waves to X-rays.

A death star’s ghostly glow

28 October 2016 Astronomy Now

The eerie glow of a dead star, which exploded long ago as a supernova, reveals itself in this NASA Hubble Space Telescope image of the Crab Nebula in the constellation of Taurus. But don’t be fooled. The ghoulish-looking object still has a pulse. Buried at its centre is the star’s telltale heart — a neutron star which beats with rhythmic precision.

Supernova ejected from the pages of history

18 August 2016 Astronomy Now

A new look at the debris from an exploded star in our galaxy has astronomers re-examining when the supernova actually happened. Recent observations of the supernova remnant called G11.2-0.3 with NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory have stripped away its connection to an event recorded by the Chinese in 386 CE.

Hubble captures the beating heart of the Crab Nebula

7 July 2016 Astronomy Now

This new NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image reveals the beating heart of one of the most visually appealing, and most studied, supernova remnants known — the Crab Nebula in the constellation Taurus. At the centre of this nebula the spinning core of a deceased star breathes life into the gas that surrounds it.

NASA’s Fermi satellite detects first gamma-ray pulsar in another galaxy

13 November 2015 Astronomy Now

Researchers using NASA’s Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope have discovered the first gamma-ray pulsar in a galaxy other than our own. Known as PSR J0540-6919, the object sets a new record for the most luminous gamma-ray pulsar known. The pulsar lies in the outskirts of the Tarantula Nebula in the Large Magellanic Cloud, a small galaxy that is located 163,000 light-years away.

Monster black hole wakes up after 26 years

26 June 2015 Astronomy Now

On 15 June 2015, a long-time acquaintance of X-ray and gamma ray astronomers made its comeback to the cosmic stage: V404 Cygni, a system comprising a black hole and a star orbiting one another. It is located in our Milky Way galaxy, almost 8,000 light-years away in the constellation Cygnus, the Swan.