The Crab Nebula (M1) is the remnant of a supernova recorded by astronomers in China and elsewhere, a cloud of debris lit from within by a spinning pulsar.
At a glance
| type | supernova remnant |
|---|---|
| distance from the Sun | 6,520 light-years (2 kpc) |
| its light left it | 6,520 years ago |
| size in the piece | about 11 light-years acrossmodel |
Read off the piece’s own catalogue, the same values it draws with. Model marks a property of the piece’s galaxy model rather than a measurement.
About Crab Nebula (M1)
The Crab is the wreckage of SN 1054, a massive star that exploded and was seen from Earth as a new star bright enough to be visible in daylight for weeks. Chinese and Japanese records date it precisely, making the Crab the first nebula securely tied to a historical supernova. It is the first object in Messier’s catalogue, and its name comes from a drawing by Lord Rosse.
At its heart is the Crab Pulsar, the collapsed core of the star: a neutron star spinning many times a second and sweeping beams across Earth. Its spin-down energy powers a wind of particles and magnetic field that fills the nebula and glows by synchrotron radiation, from radio to gamma rays, while a web of red and green filaments of stellar debris is threaded around it.
Because it is bright at every wavelength and nearly steady, the Crab is a standard reference source for X-ray and gamma-ray telescopes.
What you see in the piece
It is drawn filled with light rather than as a hollow shell: the pulsar’s wind nebula, a bluish synchrotron glow wrapped in filaments, at its honest brightness for its distance in Taurus.
Measured or modelled
Its distance is estimated, not directly measured to high precision, and the drawn extent is modelled.
Questions
What is the Crab Nebula?
It is the remains of a star that exploded as a supernova seen from Earth and recorded by Chinese astronomers. A pulsar at its centre powers its glow.
How far away is the Crab Nebula?
The Crab Nebula is about 6,520 light-years (2 kpc) from the Sun, in Taurus.