"Tau A" redirects here. For the statistic, see tau-a.
Crab Nebula
Supernova remnant
Hubble Space Telescope mosaic image assembled from 24 individual Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2 exposures taken in October 1999, January 2000, and December 2000
Observation data: J2000.0 epoch
Right ascension
05h 34m 31.94s[1]
Declination
+22° 00′ 52.2″[1]
Distance
6500±1600 ly (2000±500[2] pc)
Apparent magnitude (V)
8.4[3]
Apparent dimensions (V)
420″ × 290″[4][a]
Constellation
Taurus
Physical characteristics
Radius
~5.5 ly (~1.7[5] pc)
Absolute magnitude (V)
−3.1±0.5[b]
Notable features
Optical pulsar
Designations
Messier 1, NGC 1952, Taurus A, Sh2-244[1]
See also: Lists of nebulae
The Crab Nebula (catalogue designations M1, NGC 1952, Taurus A) is a supernova remnant and pulsar wind nebula in the constellation of Taurus. The common name comes from a drawing that somewhat resembled a crab with arms produced by William Parsons, 3rd Earl of Rosse, in 1842 or 1843 using a 36-inch (91 cm) telescope.[6] The nebula was discovered by English astronomer John Bevis in 1731. It corresponds with a bright supernova recorded by Chinese astronomers in 1054 as a guest star. The nebula was the first astronomical object identified that corresponds with a historically-observed supernova explosion.[7]
At an apparent magnitude of 8.4, comparable to that of Saturn's moon Titan, it is not visible to the naked eye but can be made out using binoculars under favourable conditions. The nebula lies in the Perseus Arm of the Milky Way galaxy, at a distance of about 2.0 kiloparsecs (6,500 ly) from Earth. It has a diameter of 3.4 parsecs (11 ly), corresponding to an apparent diameter of some 7 arcminutes, and is expanding at a rate of about 1,500 kilometres per second (930 mi/s), or 0.5% of the speed of light.
At the center of the nebula lies the Crab Pulsar, a neutron star 28–30 kilometres (17–19 mi) across with a spin rate of 30.2 times per second, which emits pulses of radiation from gamma rays to radio waves. At X-ray and gamma ray energies above 30 keV, the Crab Nebula is generally the brightest persistent gamma-ray source in the sky, with measured flux extending to above 10 TeV. The nebula's radiation allows detailed study of celestial bodies that occult it. In the 1950s and 1960s, the Sun's corona was mapped from observations of the Crab Nebula's radio waves passing through it, and in 2003, the thickness of the atmosphere of Saturn's moon Titan was measured as it blocked out X-rays from the nebula.
^ abc"M 1". SIMBAD. Centre de données astronomiques de Strasbourg. Retrieved 12 February 2012.
^Kaplan, David L.; et al. (2008). "A Precise Proper Motion for the Crab Pulsar, and the Difficulty of Testing Spin-Kick Alignment for Young Neutron Stars". The Astrophysical Journal. 677 (2): 1201–1215. arXiv:0801.1142. Bibcode:2008ApJ...677.1201K. doi:10.1086/529026. S2CID 17840947.
^"Messier 1". SEDS Messier Catalog. Retrieved 27 April 2022.
^Cite error: The named reference Trimble1973 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^Hester, J. J. (2008). "The Crab Nebula: An Astrophysical Chimera". Annual Review of Astronomy and Astrophysics. 46: 127–155. Bibcode:2008ARA&A..46..127H. doi:10.1146/annurev.astro.45.051806.110608.
^Ridpath, Ian. "Lord Rosse and the Crab Nebula". Star Tales. Retrieved 6 September 2023.
^Garner, Rob (6 October 2017). "Messier 1 (The Crab Nebula)". NASA. Retrieved 27 April 2022.
The CrabNebula (catalogue designations M1, NGC 1952, Taurus A) is a supernova remnant and pulsar wind nebula in the constellation of Taurus. The common...
The Crab Pulsar (PSR B0531+21 or Baade's Star) is a relatively young neutron star. The star is the central star in the CrabNebula, a remnant of the supernova...
The Southern CrabNebula (or WRAY 16-147 or Hen 2-104) is a nebula in the constellation Centaurus. The nebula is several thousand light years from Earth...
supernova remnant, for example the CrabNebula, or the nebula within the large Vela Supernova Remnant. As the pulsar wind nebula ages, the supernova remnant...
the crab, and depicted as a crab. William Parsons, 3rd Earl of Rosse drew the CrabNebula in 1848 and noticed its similarity to the animal; the Crab Pulsar...
as the CrabNebula. It is located in the sky near the star Zeta Tauri (ζ Tauri). The core of the exploding star formed a pulsar, called the Crab Pulsar...
Chinese astronomers. The SN 1054 supernova, which gave birth to the CrabNebula, was also observed by Chinese and Islamic astronomers. Medieval Islamic...
Lagoon Nebula". European Space Agency. Retrieved 2018-05-11. "Hubble Celebrates 29th Anniversary with the Southern CrabNebula". 18 April 2019. "The Crab of...
observed in February 1987. Other well-known supernova remnants include the CrabNebula; Tycho, the remnant of SN 1572, named after Tycho Brahe who recorded...
plerions, of which the Crabnebula and its associated pulsar are archetypal. Pulsed emission gamma-ray radiation from the Crab has recently been observed...
M.; Bühler, R.; Büsching, I. (1 October 2006). "Observations of the Crabnebula with HESS". Astronomy & Astrophysics. 457 (3): 899–915. arXiv:astro-ph/0607333...
{\displaystyle P\approx 33} ms of the CrabNebula pulsar using Arecibo Observatory. The discovery of the Crab pulsar provided confirmation of the rotating...
"Messier 42 (The Orion Nebula) - NASA Science". science.nasa.gov. Retrieved 2024-05-09. Hester, J. Jeff (2008-09-01). "The CrabNebula: An Astrophysical Chimera"...
source of high radio brightness temperature in the CrabNebula". This source turned out to be the Crab Pulsar that resulted from the great supernova of...
explosion appeared in the constellation of Taurus, where it produced the CrabNebula remnant. At its peak, the luminosity of SN 1054 may have been four times...
galaxies. For example, Messier 1 is a supernova remnant, known as the CrabNebula, and the great spiral Andromeda Galaxy is M31. Further inclusions followed;...
1103/RevModPhys.47.877. Motions and structure of the filamentary envelope of the CrabNebula (Thesis). Virginia Trimble; Thomas R. Williams; Katherine Bracher; Richard...
example, in the rest frame of a neutrino particle travelling from the CrabNebula supernova to Earth, the supernova occurred in the 11th Century AD only...
Egypt and Europe. The widely observed supernova SN 1054 produced the CrabNebula. Supernovae SN 1572 and SN 1604, the latest Milky Way supernovae to be...
complex index of refraction. This effect was observed for light from the CrabNebula by Martin, Illing and Angel. An optically thick circumstellar environment...
the individual articles, where available, for each nebula. Please see the linked article on the nebula for references. Many distances are estimates (denoted...
which would otherwise be unknown. One example of such study would be the CrabNebula, which is the remains of a supernova of July 1054, the SN 1054. During...
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